newsand wews

by BOB McBRIEN execufive vice president of the Lumber Merchonts Associotion of Northern Cqlifornio

THE RECENT announcement that the income of California r families is 20 percent higher than the national average couldn't have been made at a better time for some California lumber dealers. I refer specifically to those in |,the Bay Area who had the opportunity to participate in the "Dynamics of Selling" program held August 26-27 in San Jose.

Much ado has been made in recent months over the fact that California is now larger than New York and as such is at the top of the heap. Now, with the announcement that California is the number one state in personal income, we have a real need for all the dynamics of selling we can obtain'

Participating in the fine program con- ducted by -y counterpart in the Northwest, Ross Kincaid of th-e Western Retail Lumbermen's Association, gave me an insight into the type of salesmen and sales training that can make or break a lumber dealer. **+t

Never let it be said that personal interest doesn't influence a sale. It is the beginning and the end of the sale and much of what transpires in the interim as the customer waits and waits to be told "what this or that pfduc; will do for me."

LMA members who participated in this program have returned to their place of business with new enthusiasm for selling. It can and should be fun . j*t as it is a constant challenge. Increasing a sales ticket by selling an item that a customer has been solil on not only puts a smile on the customer's face, but it puts an important one on the cash register.

The Dynamics of Selling program helps you to sell more, easier and faster. It is the basis of communication of all selling appeals, points and information. It becomes the common pattern and language for selling-point dissemination forever thereafter. All can understand it all believe it . all contribute to its use and all profit by using it.

If we consider for a minute that California families will have an average income of nearly $12,800 by 1970 (lB percent higher than this year), we have a real stimulus for total involvement in sales training which will insure that our retail lumber dealer establishments will set their share of this income.

It's a well proven fact that as a family's income increases, its members tend to spend more and more on luxuries and less on necessities. Boat sales are up, travel is at an all-time high, photography is more popular than ever, there are more cars in the yard and garage than ever before-etc. ***

Next spring we will introduce a complete series of ooDynamics of Selling" meetings throughout northern California. I urge you to participate in them. In the mepntime, do everything possible to increase sales training at your store level. The income level is climbing, but we have to work harder and be smarter to share.

Southern Pine Plywood Chonge?

A recommended revision of the commercial standard for Southern Pine Plywood has been distributed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to the trade for consideration. Copies are available free from the Office of Commodity Standards, ir{ational Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. 20234.

The Arnerican Plywood Association requested the revision:

(I) to provide reguirements for a new special construction grade of plywood for engineered applications, to be designated "Structural I,"

(2) to change the requirements for designating Southern Pine Plywood,

(3) to provide a sampling procedure and a test method for determining the specific gravity of Southern Pine in the face and back veneer. and

(4) to delete the grade of B-B Interior, concrete form, plvwood.

The Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, cooperated with APA and the National Bureau of Standards in the development of this revision.

Industry Merchondising Conclove

Forty-one forest products representatives gathered at Fontana" Wisconsin, for the fourth meeting of the Lumber Industry Merchandising Council, hosted this |ear by the National-American Wholesale Lumber Association, on August 25.

Chairmanned by Bruce F. Harris, president of NAWLA, the group consisted of representatives of manufacturers, wholesalers. retail dealers, commission salesmen and trade association staff members. Purpose of the meeting was to explore mutual marketing problems and to recommend actions beneficial to the forest products industry.

Subjects discussed by the council included proposed dual distribution legislation, the increasing need for prefabrication" changes in credit needg more effective policing of fraudulent grade stamping, better coordination on promotion programs, and a trainee exchans€ program.

The council adopted a resolution heartily endorsing lhe recent unanimous recommendation of the American Lumber Standards Subcommittee on revision of SPR 16-53 recommending an equitable industry-wide answer to the lumber size problem. The Council urged ALSC and the Department of Cornmerce to move forward with all possible dispatch to promulgate the standard before the advent of the 1966 buying season.

Both retailers and whilesalers reported a general deterioration in the credit situation, with average age of accounts receivable gradually and consistently increasing. Members reported that companies producing materials in competition with forest products are offering stock to distributors on a consignment basis. It was brought out thato while lumber and plywodd distributors are not asking manufacturers for extra credit extension at this time. forest products are none-theJess losing markets to other materials because of the situation. It was agreed that distributors definitely require extension of time on payment when selling new products.

Polm Springs Technicql Meef

Architects, engineers and builders, the customers of the forest products industries, will trace technical and marketing progress required to expand the ,wood industry's markets at a November conference.

Scheduled for Palm Springs, the National Forest Products Association two day meeting will also review and evaluate technical progress, regulatory traps and research and developments signposts that may indicate market and profit potential. Dates in Nov,smber are the 8.9.

Ostrom Lumber to Erickson

Veteran lumbermanJogger Axel Erickson, and his son Jack, recently sold their interests and holdings in Washington and returned to the Cali{ornia lumber industry with their purchase of Ostrom Lumber Company in Marysville, Septemher 10. It was jointly announced by the Ericksons and former president Bill Pendola (now president of Pickering Lumber Corporation).

Axel Erickson has been identified with the West Coast lumber industry his entire life, more recently in Washington state, but further back as a leader in logging and sawmilling in Mendocino and Humboldt counties.

Latest WWPA figures rate the former Ostrom mill at 80,000 bf per day with its cut heavy to sugar and ponderosa pine, the balance of production in white fir, Douglas fir and incense cedar.

Following the transaction, the Marysville operation was renamed Erickson Lumber Company, P. O. Box 1310.

Foresf Recreqtion Symbol

Recreation-seekers will find a new trce in the forests of three northwestern California counties this fall-the green, yellow and hlack triangular symbol of the Redrvood Industry Recreation Areas program.

The tree-like sign will identi{y 260,000 acres of private forest lands open to public use in Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Twenty-four areas will offer free picknicking, hiking, camping, rock collecting, swimming, beach combing and hunting, except when extreme fire hazards may cause temporary closures.

In announcing the sign system, committee chairman Herb Peterson of Simpson Timber Co. said the triangular shape was chosen to represent cooperation between landowners, recreationists and government agencies.