Ready Hung Door Plans New Era Of Lumber Dealer Relations

A FTER MORE THAN a decade of / I leadership in the packaged door unit field, the Ready Hung Door Manufacturing Company of Southern California has embarked upon a new era of lumber dealer relations. "We are going all out," said Mr. C. B. Ramsey, Secretary-Treasurer of the company, "in getting the lumber dealer back into the door picture."

From studies made thus far. Mr. Ramsey indicated that very few yards are selling all of the components which make up a Ready Hung Door package. Door frames, which seem to be the item that leads the list in most yards, are nevertheless supplied to less than half of the accounts which are customers for lumber or some other basic material. Hardware is at the bottom of the list with an average dealer selling finish hardware to less than lo/o of accounts who are customers for lumber or some o,ther item in the buildi.g.

Because a Ready Hung Door consists of jamb, door, casing, stop, hinges, lock, and labor, it is obvious that the sale of this package vi'ill go a long way toward building up the volume of the average yard.

In addition to the increased volume, Mr. ltamsey felt that the Company

Secretory-Treosurar also has simplicity of operation and lowered overhead to offer since onlv one phone call, one invoice, and oni delivery account for the six components in the package.

Throughout the years of their opera- tion, during which the largest home builders in the United States have continuously used their product, some lumber yards have consistently built up their business in components such as this while others have adopted more of a "wait and see" attitude. Whereas ten years ago the principal dealers of Ready Hung Doors were relatively few and isolated, today the company has more than a hundred active dealer accounts. The number is rapidly growing and this is attributed by the company to a more aggressive attitude toward this phase of the business.

Other factors are the wide success which components are having in the entire construqtion field plus the new attitude toward modernization, alert retailing and promotion which characterizes today's progressive dealer. There is little comparison with a similar operation of ten years ago. ,

Reader response to Ready Hung Door advertising seems to be at an alltime high. When asked the explana- tion for this, the General Sales Manager indicated that in his opinion it is due to the gradual upswing in residential and light commercial construction. Hundreds of builders are coming back into the market who have experienced the satisfaction and convenience of using Ready Hung Doors during the era of large tract development but .ivho have been out of the market as builders for the past several years. Once having worked with components, these men are reluctant to go back to parts and pieces, just as a man who has smoked standard cigarettes for years would be reluctant to again start ro11ing his own.

At the present time, the company is servicing the entire Southern California area from it,s Burbank plant and with its own delivery equipment. It is in a position to promptly take care of whatever reouirements marr develop in its field.

Mr. Ramsey states that he has been particularly impressed in recent months rvith the tremendous upsurge in remodeling and home modernization which is creating a growing markqt of vast proportions.

When an owner-occupied house is being remodeled, it is impo,ssible to get the working crew out fast enough to suit the owner or to "close the house up" fast enough to suit the contractor doing the work. Into this picture Ready Hung brings a complete package which can be installed by anyone in 15 minutes, and has often been installed by a good finish man in as little as 5. This means that a hole in a wall or to the outside can be closed with a well-fitted. good-looking door almost as fast-or faster. than the hole can be made. This is equally true in the case of the addition of extra rooms.

In the apartment house field the de- mand fo,r a fast finish is Predicated upon slighfly difierent reasoning. Here, too, the contractor wants to get the carpenters out and the painters in as rapidly as possible. However, his primarv concern is often the interest whiih is being paid on the loan and the rentals which begin coming in as rapidly as tenants can be moved in. There have been numerous instances where two good finish men have cornpleted the entire finish of a 12 to 15unit apartment house in one day bY using the Ready Hung Door package. Lumber yards also have a responsibility to bring to their steady customers among the custom home builders the latest and best products in the component field. These will improve the efficiency of their operation, give greater owner satisfaction, and enable them to compete on a more even basis rvith the large tract developer rvho oftentimes achieves a part of this ef6ciency due to the size and scope of his operations. It has been the experience oi the Ready Hung Door Manufacturing Company that once a builder in this category has used its products he almost never goes back to the old conventional way of casing and hanging doors. After the inveution of the selfstarter on automobiles, no one would any longer buy a car that required hand-cranking. Neither will the builder 'n'ho has experienced the ease and speed of working with power tools revert to production by hand tools. Packaged doors such as the Ready Hung line are just another step in the process o,f doing a job faster and better --under controlled conditions-so that the builder can achieve the most results with the least expenditure of effort, labor, and superviiion.

It is true that the introduction of arly new product requires management supervision to see that employees are rvell indoctrinated in the sales, handling, receipt,and storage of such prod- ucts. Employees should know what they will accomplish as well as their limitations. Because of the multiplicity of the items which they carry, it may be that this has not been giver-r the attention it deserves at the yard level. These oroblems certainlv deserve an increasing amount of aitention from the manufacturer at his level. Ready Hung has made substantial progress in this direction and has capable men available to work with the dealer at every opportunity. Mr. Ramsey points out, however, that there has been a tremendous distribution of the company's product over the past decade and a resultant familiarity rvith it by thousands of building contractors. The lumber yard's contribution therefore is more one of supplying information concerning availability rather than being burdened with builder education which has been done, and is continuing to be done, on an extensive scale.

As rapidly as possible the company is incorporating the names of its cooperating dealers into its builder advertising program and it is only necessary for well rated yards to drop a postal card to the Company at Post Office Box 707 in Burbank, requesting inclusion, if they would like to participate in this program.

In an era when profits are being squeezed in all directions, products such as this have much to offer the dealer. lle can offer his customers a oroduct which is exclusive in the sense ihat it has patented features not found in low-priced competitive items. His repeat business is remarkably substantial. He sells all six items in one pack- age, and the total dollars and cents profit on these items is considerably better than the limited profit which is to be made on conventional materials.

Mr. E. A. (Andy) Anderson, well known and respected among West Coast lumbermen, is in charge of the program with lumber yards. He will welcome requests for further information or an opportunity to discuss any problems which an individual dealer might have. This may be the year of the "big break-through" on component building. There was never a better time for the dealer to get in on the picture than now while interest in such products, and Ready Hung Doors, are at an all-time high.