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Archive for August 16, 2010
Two killed, one shot in Stillwater
640 days
Two people were killed and another shot Friday afternoon during a domestic dispute at a Stillwater apartment complex that ended in a shootout with police.
A man shot and killed his wife and shot and injured her daughter around 4:30 p.m. after he grew angry that his wife, worried about his health, had called for an ambulance to come pick him up. When police responded, he got into a shootout with them and was killed.
The incident occurred at the Victoria Villa apartment complex, 1451 Greeley St. S.
The man was identified by neighbors as Gerald Propps, 62. He lived on the first level of the building with his wife, Trudy, also 62. Trudy was taken to Regions Hospital where she later died. The daughter, who was not identified, was treated and released at Lakeview hospital for a bullet wound to the arm.
It was unexpected fury of violence from a quiet couple neighbors said.
Kathleen Gavegnano, 79, had been waiting for her pastor to bring her dinner Friday afternoon when she heard a commotion in the hallway.
Wondering what it was, she opened to the door to see Trudy on the ground, bleeding from the stomach. Propps’ daughter and another neighbor, Bobby Yates, were tending to her in the hallway.
“I looked down and I knew,” Gavegnano said. Yates told her to get back into her apartment, at which point her pastor arrived.
“We went into the apartment and started praying,” she said. “But when the bullets started coming through my kitchen, we hit the floor.”
Bullets began spraying out of the walls of the Propps’ apartment across the hallway, several ripping through Gavegnano’s kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra, a cutting board and ricocheting off of her stove.
“It was just horrendous, it was horrific,” she said. “It just happened so quick.”
The bullets had started again after Stillwater Police officer Brad Allen, a 15-year-veteran of the force, went into the apartment.
Yates said Allen asked Gerald Propps three times to put the gun down. When he didn’t, shooting ensued.
“I froze,” Yates said. He stood and saw bullets popping out of the walls on either side of him.
Stillwater Police Sgt. Jeff Stender said Allen would be placed on routine administrative leave while the investigation of the shooting is being done.
“[Allen] seems to be doing well at this point, based on what he’s been through,” Stender said. “I think he did a fabulous job. It’s unfortunate what had to occur, but he saw what was occurring and took the necessary steps to prevent any further loss of life.”
Gavegnano, who in January will have lived in the building 30 years, was in shock Saturday afternoon.
She’d been close with both Gerald and Trudy. She said the Propps had been childhood sweethearts, but had each gotten married to other people. But both of their first marriages had ended. Seven years ago, they finally married.
They had both served in the armed forces, she in the Navy and he in the Army. Gerald had served as a sheriff’s deputy in Kentucky.
They seemed like a happy couple, Gavegnano said, there were no signs of any problems.
“He was a southern gentleman,” she said. “There were no domestics, there was none of that. That’s what so traumatizing about he whole thing. They were good people.”
But Gerald had been deteriorating in health. Gavegnano said he’d had an aneurysm and was scheduled to have surgery this next week.
He was on heavy medication, and over the last year his health had diminished dramatically, Yates said.
“He went from about 200 pounds down to like 120 in eight months,” he said.
Trudy, who worked as the apartment manager during days and at Wal-Mart stocking shelves at night, had been worried about his health and called 911 Friday about just that, Gavegnano said.
“When they said he had to go in, it just sent him right over the edge,” she said. “He wasn’t ready to go yesterday.”
“They were good hearted people,” Gavegnano added. “He just went over the edge. He just snapped.”
Allen was hired part-time by the police department in 1990, and hired on full time at the department in 1995. He’s served on patrol and as an investigator. He is currently a field-training officer and a certified drug recognition expert, according to Stillwater Police.
Yates, the neighbor who’d helped Trudy during the shooting, said the fact that it had happened just a few doors down was still hard to handle.
“It’s a shock when it happens right down your hallway,” he said. But the bigger shock, he said, was who was involved.
“It’s sad,” he said. “Stress does things to people that nobody can understand.”
Peter Cox covers crime and the cities of Stillwater and Oak Park Heights for the Gazette. He can be reached at pcox@acnpapers.com or 651-796-1108.
Customers Still Expect Bargains Before Theyll Buy Homes
640 days
This month, CBH Homes in Meridian, Idaho, has been running a promotion called ?Corey?s Picks,? featuring the builder?s owner, Corey Barton, who is offering $8,000?which buyers can apply to upgrades or closing costs?on all homes 1,500 square feet or larger; $5,000 for homes under 1,500 square feet, and $10,000 off the more expensive homes?the builder is?selling in its Chesterfield community.
Holly Haener, CBH Homes? director of sales and marketing, says the company doesn?t have another incentive program scheduled to begin in September. And it?s hard to gauge the effectiveness of incentives and promos right now because, she says, ?even if we?re not running any, people are asking for them. We?d prefer not to have to offer incentives, but buyers want to deal.?
The recession has turned the housing industry into a bazaar in the minds of many buyers, who have come to expect discounts and other goodies as though they were buying a car. An NAHB survey of nearly 300 builders in June found that 73% were currently using some form of sales incentive. Another 15% started offering incentives after the federal home buyer tax credit expired at the end of April. But fewer than one-fifth of those polled said they were marketing special incentives specifically as a substitute for the tax credit.
?We tacked on this question to our monthly [NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing] survey because we were calls from reporters who had assumed that everyone was going to change [their incentives or promotions] after the tax credit expired,? says Paul Emrath, NAHB?s vice president for Survey and Housing Policy Research. ?But that really didn?t happen.?
Calls to several builders around the country confirm NAHB?s findings, as builders say they haven?t tried to present alternatives to the tax credit to buyers, with a?few exceptions. After the credit expired, Centerline Homes in Coral Springs, Fla., ran a 30-day ?Missed The Tax Credit?? promotion, which essentially gave new buyers the same dollar amount. ?We got a little bit of interest from that,? says Jeff Auchter, Centerline?s director of marketing.
Other builders, though, contend the tax credit didn?t really work as intended. ?In the final analysis, it accelerated sales rather than created sales,? observes Greg Yakim, CEO of Houston-based Castlerock Communities. However, the tax credit did perpetuate the perception among consumers that the listed price of a house is never the final price.
?Affordability relative to income is not a major issue in our market the way credit is,? says Yakim. Nevertheless, his company has been offering price discounts in the $20,000 to $30,000 range ?simply to compete,? he explains, because other builders are discounting, too. ?The customer doesn?t even look at the price as much as he does the discount.? But his 30-plus communities each has its own pricing and marketing strategy, depending on the aggressiveness of their competition.
David Gordon, who co-owns Poirier Homes in Farmington, Conn., with his wife, says that one negative aspect of the tax credit was that ?it gave people the idea that they could beat up the builder on price.? So this custom builder continues to offer breaks on upgrades. For example, Poirier might bump up its standard 2 ?-inch flooring to 3 ?-inch white oak. ?We?re also doing things with our allowances,? such as increasing the $30,000 allowance for kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra to $35,000. Recently, his company has offered to pay HERS raters to test its houses and?letting the homeowner keep the rebate, which reinforces Poirier Homes? energy-efficient reputation.
Gordon concedes these incentives contributed to the sale of the two houses his company has built so far this year. ?But we?re making less money on the houses we?re building. We have a good reputation for quality, but we cannot get beyond the reality that everyone is looking for a deal.?
In the first two weeks in August, Ideal Homes in Oklahoma offered to pay the homeowner?s utility bills for a year if he or she closed on the home they bought by the end of the month. It?s been running this promotion during the first half of months because ?we were noticing that a lot of traffic and sales are heavily weighted towards the last two weeks of the month,? says Steve Shoemaker, Ideal?s vice president of marketing.
Shoemaker says incentives like these give Ideal?s salespeople more ammunition when they recall on prospects. However, in a still-soft economy, when consumer confidence remains shaky, incentives and promotions can only go so far to generate business. During the first three months of 2010, Ideal had been averaging 50 to 60 sales per month; its spring and summer volume has been more like 30 to 40 per month.
One positive development, though, has been the effectiveness of the Internet as a lead generator. This year, 24% of Ideal?s sales started with an online lead, compared to 15% in 2009 and 8% in 2006. ?I love this,? says Shoemaker, ?because everything is trackable, and it helps you to be nimble.? On its website, Ideal is offering $1,000 to anyone who refers a customer who turns into a buyer.
In Florida, Centerline now confines its incentives to paying buyers? closing costs ?and other things that will get them into the house quicker,? says Auchter. But he worries that builders are leaning too heavily on incentives as a crutch. He notes that Centerline recently sold through a community of 168 single-family homes in a year without resorting to discounting once.
?The challenge for builders will be to come up with something more compelling than discounts, which customers are becoming immune to,? he says.
John Caulfield is senior editor for BUILDER magazine.
Reportlinker Adds US Cabinets Market
640 days
NEW YORK, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:
http://www.reportlinker.com/p091895/US-Cabinets-Market.html
US demand to expand 7.4% annually through 2014
US demand for cabinets is forecast to expand 7.4 percent per year to $15.2 billion in 2014. Gains will be spurred by the rebound in housing completions from the depressed levels of 2009, reflecting the sharp declines in housing completions between 2007 and 2009. Although housing completions will remain below the level reached at their cyclical peak in 2006, the recovery will fuel above average gains in the residential cabinets market through 2014.
kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra to offer best growth opportunities
kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra, which represented about 80 percent of cabinet shipments in 2009, are expected to post the most rapid advances through 2014. The projected rebound in housing completions through 2014 will drive gains. Growth will also be supported by design trends that call for homes with more and larger-sized cabinets to store food products and kitchen equipment. Many homeowners will also install cabinets with such value added amenities as pull-out shelves, racks and lazy Susans to enhance kitchen convenience. Shipments of bathroom cabinets are forecast to grow at an above average pace through 2014. Advances will primarily be supported by rebounding housing completions. Design trends that call for homes with larger master bathrooms and larger cabinets to store personal items and medications will also promote gains. Shipments of other cabinets, such as those found in offices, home entertainment centers, laundry and mud rooms, garages and other areas, are expected to rise more than three percent annually through 2014. Advances will be promoted by increasing use of cabinets in these areas instead of shelving.
Residential buildings to remain dominant market
Residential buildings were the largest market for cabinets in 2009, with about three-quarters of total demand. The residential market will continue to hold this leading position through 2014, given its greater intensity of cabinet use compared to other markets. While new housing will lead advances, the improvement and repair segment will continue to account for the majority of residential demand. Not only is there a large stock of older homes requiring cabinet replacement, but kitchen and bathroom renovation projects — including the replacement of cabinets — are often undertaken by homeowners to improve the aesthetics or add value to their homes. Through 2014, demand for cabinets in the nonresidential market is anticipated to rise 2.8 percent annually. Concerns about price and performance generally play a larger role in cabinet selection than aesthetics in most nonresidential structures. Thus, cabinets are replaced much less frequently. Growth will be derived from continued institutional construction spending and a rebound in office and commercial construction spending. Rising shipments of boats and recreational vehicles from a low 2009 base will boost demand for cabinets in the nonconstruction market. The US cabinet industry is characterized by relatively low levels of foreign trade, with imports accounting for less than five percent of demand in 2009 and exports approximately one percent of shipments. US foreign trade in cabinets is limited by many factors, such as the cost of shipping fully assembled cabinets and variations in style preferences between the US and other countries. Through 2014, cabinet shipments are expected to rise over seven percent per year, as domestic manufacturers increase production efforts to meet rising demand for cabinetry.
Study coverage
This industry study presents historical demand data (1999, 2004 and 2009) and forecasts for 2014 and 2019 by material, product, market and US region. The study also considers market environment factors, evaluates company market share and profiles industry competitors.
INTRODUCTION xi
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1
II. MARKET ENVIRONMENT 4
General 4
Macroeconomic Environment 5
Demographic Trends 8
Consumer Trends 12
Personal Income & Expenditures 13
Consumer Financing 15
Building Construction 18
Residential Buildings 19
Housing Completions 21
Improvements & Repairs 26
Housing Stock 28
Nonresidential Buildings 32
New 32
Improvements & Repairs 35
Nonresidential Building Stock 37
Transportation Equipment 39
Historical Market Trends 42
Pricing 45
Regulatory Environment 47
Environmental Issues 48
Certification 52
Other Issues 53
World Cabinetry Industry 54
US Foreign Trade 55
Imports 56
Exports 59
III. MATERIALS 62
General 62
Wood-Based Materials 64
Lumber 66
Engineered Wood 69
Particleboard 73
Plywood 75
Medium Density Fiberboard 77
Other 80
Wood Veneer 81
Nonwood Materials 83
Decorative Laminates 86
Material Characteristics 88
Material Development 89
Metal 90
Glass & Other Materials 92
IV. PRODUCTS 95
General 95
kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra 98
Kitchen Cabinet Characteristics 100
Shipments by Market 103
Shipments by Construction Method 106
Stock 108
Semicustom 111
Custom 114
Shipments by Material 117
Bathroom Cabinets 119
Vanities 122
Vanity Characteristics 125
Product Development 125
Other Bathroom Cabinets 127
Shipments by Material 131
Other Cabinet Products 133
Store Display Cabinets 135
All Other Cabinets 136
Entertainment Center Cabinets 137
Home Office Cabinets 138
Other Home Cabinets 139
Garage Cabinets 140
Miscellaneous Cabinets 141
Shipments by Material 141
V. MARKETS 144
General 144
Demand by Market & Application 145
Demand by Product & Material 148
Residential 150
New 153
Improvement & Repair 156
Demand by Material 161
Demand by Housing Type 162
Single-Family 164
Multifamily 166
Manufactured Housing 167
Nonresidential 169
New 171
Improvement & Repair 174
Demand by Material 176
Demand by Building Type 178
Office & Commercial 179
Institutional 181
Industrial & Other 183
Nonconstruction 185
Demand by Application 186
Demand by Material 188
VI. REGIONS 190
General 190
Regional Demographic & Economic Trends 191
Population Patterns 192
Economic Outlook 194
Regional Construction Activity 196
Housing Trends 199
Regional Demand for Cabinets 202
Northeast 204
New England 206
Middle Atlantic 207
Midwest 208
East North Central 210
West North Central 212
South 213
South Atlantic 215
East South Central 217
West South Central 218
West 220
Mountain 222
Pacific 223
VII. INDUSTRY STRUCTURE 225
General 225
Industry Composition 226
Market Share 230
Competitive Strategies 235
Product Development 238
Manufacturing 241
Plant Closures 241
Raw Materials 242
Manufacturing Technologies 243
Efficiency Maximizations 244
Environmental Considerations 245
Marketing 246
Distribution 249
Mergers, Acquisitions & Cooperative Agreements 253
Company Profiles 256
Adelphi Kitchens Incorporated 257
Adorn Door, see Patrick Industries
American Woodmark Corporation 259
Aristokraft Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Armstrong World Industries Incorporated 263
Barbosa Cabinets Incorporated 265
Bertch Cabinet Manufacturing Incorporated 266
Broan-NuTone Storage Solutions, see Nortek
Cabinetry by Karman, see Wellborn Cabinet
Canyon Creek Cabinet Company 268
Capital Cabinet, see Fortune Brands
Cardell Kitchen and Bath Cabinetry 270
Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation 271
Crystal Cabinet Works Incorporated 272
Decora Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Diamond Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Dura Supreme Incorporated 274
Elkay Manufacturing Company 275
Eurodesign Cabinets, see Royal Industries
Fortune Brands Incorporated 279
Grandview Products Company Incorporated 287
Groupe Cabico, see Republic National Cabinet
Haas Cabinet Company Incorporated 288
HomeCrest Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Huntwood Industries 290
Kemper Distinctive Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Kitchen Craft Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Kitchen Kompact Incorporated 291
Kohler Company 293
KraftMaid Cabinetry, see Masco
Legacy Cabinets, see Republic National Cabinet
Lozier Corporation 296
Luxury Custom Cabinetry, see Wellborn Cabinet
Marsh Furniture Company 297
Masco Corporation 299
MasterBrand Cabinets, see Fortune Brands
MasterCraft Cabinets, see Elkay Manufacturing
McConnell Cabinets Incorporated 303
Medallion Cabinetry, see Elkay Manufacturing
Merillat Industries, see Masco
Mid Continent, see Norcraft Companies
Norcraft Companies LP 305
Nortek Incorporated 310
Omega Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Pace Industries Incorporated 312
Patrick Industries Incorporated 313
Prestige Cabinets, see RSI Holding
Quality Cabinets, see Masco
Republic National Cabinet Corporation 314
Robern, see Kohler Company
Royal Industries Incorporated 317
RSI Holding Corporation 319
Schrock Cabinetry, see Fortune Brands
Schuler Cabinetry, see Elkay Manufacturing
StarMark Cabinetry, see Norcraft Companies
Sunshine Kitchens, see Republic National Cabinet
UltraCraft, see Norcraft Companies
Viking Range Corporation 322
Wellborn Cabinet Incorporated 323
Woodcrafters Home Products LLC 325
Wood-Mode Incorporated 327
Yorktowne, see Elkay Manufacturing
Additional Companies Mentioned in Study 329
LIST OF TABLES
SECTION I — EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Summary Table 3
SECTION II — MARKET ENVIRONMENT
1 Macroeconomic Indicators 8
2 Population & Households 12
3 Personal Consumption Expenditures 14
4 Consumer Financing Environment, 1999-2009 18
5 Residential Building Construction Expenditures 21
6 New Housing Indicators 26
7 Residential Improvement & Repair Expenditures 28
8 Housing Stock by Type 31
9 Nonresidential Building Construction Expenditures 35
10 Nonresidential Building Improvement & Repair Expenditures 36
11 Nonresidential Building Stock 39
12 Transportation Equipment Shipments 42
13 Cabinet Market, 1999-2009 44
14 US Cabinet Foreign Trade 56
SECTION III — MATERIALS
1 Materials Used in Cabinet Production 63
2 Wood-Based Materials Used in Cabinet Production 66
3 Lumber Used in Cabinet Production 69
4 Engineered Wood Used in Cabinet Production 72
5 Wood Veneer Used in Cabinet Production 83
6 Nonwood Materials Used in Cabinet Production 85
7 Decorative Laminates Used in Cabinet Production 87
8 Metal Used in Cabinet Production 92
9 Glass & Other Materials Used in Cabinet Production 94
SECTION IV — PRODUCTS
1 Cabinet Supply & Demand 98
2 Kitchen Cabinet Shipments by Market 106
3 Kitchen Cabinet Shipments by Construction Method 108
4 Stock Kitchen Cabinet Shipments by Market 111
5 Semicustom Kitchen Cabinet Shipments by Market 114
6 Custom Kitchen Cabinet Shipments by Market 117
7 Kitchen Cabinet Shipments by Material 119
8 Bathroom Cabinet Shipments by Market & Type 122
9 Vanity Shipments by Market 124
10 Other Bathroom Cabinet Shipments by Market 131
11 Bathroom Cabinet Shipments by Material 132
12 Other Cabinet Shipments by Market & Type 135
13 All Other Cabinet Shipments by Type 137
14 Other Cabinet Shipments by Material 143
SECTION V — MARKETS
1 Cabinet Demand by Market & Application 147
2 Cabinet Demand by Product & Material 150
3 Residential Cabinet Demand by Product & Application 153
4 New Residential Cabinet Demand by Product 156
5 Improvement & Repair residential Cabinet Demand by Product 160
6 Residential Cabinet Demand by Material 162
7 Residential Cabinet Demand by Housing Type 164
8 Single-Family Housing Demand for Cabinets 166
9 Multifamily Housing Demand for Cabinets 167
10 Manufactured Housing Demand for Cabinets 169
11 Nonresidential Building Cabinet Demand
by Product & Application 171
12 New Nonresidential Building Cabinet Demand by Product 174
13 Improvement & Repair Nonresidential Building
Cabinet Demand by Product 176
14 Nonresidential Building Cabinet Demand by Material 178
15 Nonresidential Building Cabinet Demand by Building Type 179
16 Office & Commercial Cabinet Demand by Application 181
17 Institutional Cabinet Demand by Application 183
18 Industrial & Other Nonresidential Building Cabinet Demand
by Building Type & Application 185
19 Nonconstruction Cabinet Demand by Product & Application 188
20 Nonconstruction Cabinet Demand by Material 189
SECTION VI — REGIONS
1 Population by Region 194
2 Gross Domestic Product by Region 196
3 Construction Expenditures by Region 199
4 Regional Housing Indicators 201
5 Cabinet Demand by Region 203
6 Northeast Cabinet Demand by Subregion & Market 206
7 Midwest Cabinet Demand by Subregion & Market 210
8 South Cabinet Demand by Subregion & Market 215
9 West Cabinet Demand by Subregion & Market 222
SECTION VII — INDUSTRY STRUCTURE
1 US Cabinet Revenues for Selected Manufacturers, 2009 228
2 Selected Cooperative Agreements 255
LIST OF CHARTS
SECTION II — MARKET ENVIRONMENT
1 Cabinet Market, 2000-2009 45
2 Cabinet Pricing, 1999-2019 47
3 US Cabinet Imports by Source, 2009 59
4 US Cabinet Exports by Destination, 2009 61
SECTION III — MATERIALS
1 Engineered Wood Used in Cabinet Production, 2009 73
SECTION VI — REGIONS
1 Cabinet Demand by Region, 2009 204
SECTION VII — INDUSTRY STRUCTURE
1 US Cabinet Market Share by Company, 2009 230
2 US Cabinet Distribution Channels, 2009 253
To order this report:
Furniture and Decoration Industry: US Cabinets Market
Furniture and Decoration Business News
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Check our ?Company Profile, SWOT and Revenue Analysis!
Lowe’s tempers outlook even as profit rises
640 days
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By Cynthia Lin, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Lowe’s Cos. said Monday its second-quarter earnings grew nearly 10% thanks to strong appliance sales, but the company was less upbeat about its longer-term prospects than in the previous quarter, given lingering uncertainties in the housing market.
The world’s No. 2 home-improvement retailer
/quotes/comstock/13*!low/quotes/nls/low
(LOW
19.70,
+0.11,
+0.56%)
reported that profit for the three months ending July 30 came in at $832 million, or 58 cents a share, up from $759 million or 51 cents a share earned in the year-earlier second quarter. Quarterly sales rose 3.7%, reaching $14.36 billion.
The earnings came a penny shy of average analyst estimates of 59 cents a share, according to FactSet Research.
JCI: Always in control
Johnson Controls is a double play on a rebound in auto production and demand for building-efficiency technology.
Lowe’s shares drifted off the day’s highs, closing up 0.6% to $19.71 a piece. The stock has lost over 15% so far this year.
According to analysts, Lowe’s executives sounded more cautious about the economic outlook than they had in the prior quarter, adding unclear short-term demand to a drawn-out recovery.
“With limited visibility into near-term demand, we continue to focus on operational efficiency to create value for our shareholders,” Chief Executive Robert Niblock said in a statement.
The Mooresville, N.C.-based retailer raised its quarterly cash dividend by 22% to 11 cents a share in late May and bought back $467 million in stock during the quarter.
On a call to review the results, Niblock pointed to sturdy sales of appliances due to the cash-for-appliance program, as well as higher demand for air-conditioning units and grills because of the summer’s “extreme heat.”
Yet the weather also hurt in-store traffic and nursery, lawn, and landscape sales, as people opted to stay indoors instead of working on their yards.
Management stressed 2010 as “a year of transition for the home-improvement industry … as customers are uncertain about the macro environment and personal finances.”
Comparable average tickets at the register rose 2.1%, while the total average ticket rose 2.3% to $62.84. Executives said the quarter saw more “balanced” sales across product categories as consumers decided between “smaller ticket fixes and larger-ticket improvements.”
While customers are still spending, they are doing so at a slower pace, the home-supply chain said. Executives added that projects such as carpeting and kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra were in demand, but not ringing up as large of a ticket as the products did three to four years ago, since homeowners likely are working on smaller rooms or more basic jobs.
Same-store sales rose 1.6% for the July quarter, marking the second straight increase after 15 quarterly declines, but fell below the 2% to 4% outlook provided earlier.
“The report from Lowe’s made one thing abundantly clear — a recovery in jobs, rather than stimulus injections, will be the requirement for home improvement retailers to deliver respectable earnings growth in second half of 2010,” Wall Street Strategies analyst Brian Sozzi said following the results.
Looking ahead, Lowe’s expects to earn 28 cents to 32 cents a share on sales growth of 3% to 5% for the third quarter ending Oct. 29.
For the full fiscal year, management narrowed its earnings outlook to a range of $1.38 to $1.45 a share on sales growth of about 4%. That is lower from the previous projection of 5% to 7% growth in sales.
On average, analysts are looking for earnings of $1.43 a share on 5% sales growth.
/quotes/comstock/13*!low/quotes/nls/low
LOW
19.70,
+0.11,
+0.56%
/quotes/comstock/13*!hd/quotes/nls/hd
HD
27.38,
+0.07,
+0.26%
/quotes/comstock/13*!mas/quotes/nls/mas
MAS
10.30,
-0.18,
-1.72%
/quotes/comstock/13*!ll/quotes/nls/ll
LL
21.21,
+0.47,
+2.27%
Lowe’s faces continued uncertainties in the housing market as recent downbeat figures for home sales have led to worries about the sector’s recovery in the second half of the year, analysts said. Company executives say they do not expect the housing market to come back until 2011.
Over the longer term, “we believe improvements in labor and housing markets will be necessary to support more consistent improvement in demand,” Niblock commented in the earnings statement.
“The biggest thing is that jobs growth is not as people anticipated,” Lowe’s management added on the call. “We tempered our outlook as things will be a little slower than we had anticipated.”
Larger rival Home Depot Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!hd/quotes/nls/hd
(HD
27.38,
+0.07,
+0.26%)
is scheduled to report earnings on Tuesday, with shares up 0.2% Monday. In the prior quarter, Home Depot held a brighter outlook than that of Lowe’s, even raising its 2010 earnings projection to $1.88 a share from $1.79 a share to reflect its 41% jump in first-quarter earnings.
Cynthia Lin is a MarketWatch reporter based in New York.
Ambition dissected, as the wheel turns
640 days
The Cookbook Collector
By Allegra Goodman
Dial Press. 394 pp. $26
Reviewed by Jeffrey Ann Goudie
Allegra Goodman’s enchanting and sensuous new novel operates in pairs and opposites. Two sisters, one of them with two suitors. Two worlds, separate, even as they coalesce.
In The Cookbook Collector, Goodman has written a romance that dissects ambition with a jeweler’s precision and a culinary novel with a collection of rare cookbooks at its core. She also has produced a novel of ideas peopled by full-blooded characters. This taxonomy of dot-com ambition is a narrative about the turning of the wheel of fortune, the one the ancients and medievals believed in, not the one co-opted by television.
Set at the turn of the millennium, the sisters, transplants from New England, live in the San Francisco Bay area but in worlds separated by personality, values, and style. Jess, 23, a graduate student in philosophy, distributes leaflets for an organization called Save the Trees. At the same time, she works in a rare book store, Yorick’s, full of books made of, yup, dead trees.
Emily, her older sister by five years, is, at the tender age of 28, the CEO of a flourishing data storage start-up she has named Veritech. She is involved with Jonathan, head of a data security start-up called ISIS on the East Coast. Jess mistrusts her sister’s boyfriend.
Emily is flying high within the dot-com bubble. She is focused and practical, as well as thoughtful, ethical, and kind. Jess is “whimsical.” Where Emily wears power suits, Jess dresses in oversized clothes. Where Emily is methodical, Jess is more reflective.
Jess is also slogging through graduate school, stuck in her objections to material she finds stuffy and starchy, wandering in a thicket of incompletes. Emily is scandalized when Jess becomes involved with the 30-ish head of Save the Trees, an idealist who has hardened into an ideologue.
Jess and Emily both set off on a paper chase. Emily’s company goes public, and all its employees become instantly rich, at least on paper. Jess is in pursuit of a different kind of valuable paper, a vintage cookbook collection. The collection’s owner has approached George Friedman, the owner of Yorick’s, who enlists Jess’ help.
A millionaire who retired early from Microsoft, George, is a handsome relic, with refined tastes in food, wine, and books. When George tells his friend Nick that Jess has called Ruskin “a dogmatic, self-indulgent, sexually repressed misogynist with an edifice complex,” Nick jokes that she has also described George. George does love the house he is restoring to the vision of architect Bernard Maybeck, its designer.
With her natural trust in other people, Jess wins over Sandra, the skittish owner of the 873 cookbooks. Hidden in the kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra of Sandra’s late uncle, a lichenologist, the cookbooks span the earliest palm-size cooking guides to later disquisitions on running a household. But they are all stuffed with notes and erotic drawings by the never-married, reclusive Tom McClintock.
When George asks Jess to catalog the newly acquired collection, she begins working several hours a day in his lovely home. She pores over the cookbooks and slides into an unlikely romance with George, 16 years her senior, as skeptical and contrarian as Jess is open and vulnerable.
When the dot-com bubble bursts, the stocks of Emily’s and Jonathan’s firms plummet. The overly ambitious Jonathan betrays Emily’s trust, not in the bedroom, but in his company boardroom.
But the wheel has turned, and the dot-coms are on their way down. When the century turns further and Sept. 11, 2001 dawns, one of the planes that crashes upends Emily’s life. But losses contain the seeds of gains in this hopeful novel.
With many winks and literary references, The Cookbook Collector is a work of literary art with dollops of scholarship. Like Intuition, Goodman’s adult novel prior to this one, The Cookbook Collector explores the difference between opportunity and opportunism. But this book is better: more mature, more generous, more expansive, and complicated.
If this novel of ambition can be faulted, it is perhaps too ambitious, with a few too many narrative ingredients. I haven’t even mentioned the spicy subplots involving rabbinical relatives and a dreamy, poetic programmer.
The main dishes – and particularly the one belonging to George and Jess – are expertly prepared, delectable, and satisfying.
Jeffrey Ann Goudie is a freelance book critic living in Topeka, Kan. From the Kansas City Star.
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In the heart of Cass City
640 days
By Stacey Tucker
Staff Writer
CASS CITY ? Thanks to efforts from the community and a grant by the Pinney Foundation, the Cass City VFW Hall?s facelift is complete.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars, Cass City Post 3644 held an appreciation open house Tuesday, during which they thanked everyone who made the renovations to their post and community center possible.
?We really want to thank everyone for their support,? said Ken Hayes, of the Cass City VFW Post 3644. ?We would be in here working and people would just come up and hand us a check.
?People really stepped up and helped.?
The building recieved a complete frontal renovation with the removal of the existing vinyl siding ( A plastic exterior cladding for a house, used for decoration and weatherproofing, as an alternative to traditional wood siding or other materials such as aluminum or fiber cement siding. It is an engineered product, manufactured primarily f. New windows were installed and old sidewalks were replaced with stamped concrete and made handicapped accessible to the street.
Insulation was put in the upstairs part of the building and new and improved lighting illuminates the parking lot.
?We put four new flag poles up and the entranceway has been remodled, along with the bathrooms,? Hayes said. ?Everything has? turned out really good.
?We?ve had nothing but compliments and rental has increased dramatically.?
The renovations cost a total of $42,000, with the Pinney Foundation contributing a total of $26,000.
Other businesses and individuals who helped contribute to the project include: Cass City Rotary, Village of Cass City, Thumb National Bank, Curtis Chrysler, Pat Curtis Chevrolet, Cadillac, Chemical Bank, Ladies Auxiliary, Independent Bank, Wright?s Painting, Wayne and Sherry Dillon, Bob and Cleo Kritzman, Jim and Judy Brown, Stuart and Joan Merchant, Barb Merchant, Linda and Clarence Hagerl, Caro Rental (Dick and Jan Fulmer), attorney Jack Burns, Frankenmuth Family Dental, Kelly Realty, Kevin?s Seamless Eavs, Danco Construction, Kirn Electric, Michigan Insulation, Superior 1 Plumbing and Heating, Evergreen Moulding, Doerr Landscaping, Tuckey Concrete, R & R Cumper Masonry, Pro-Build, Ehrich Flags, Plain & Fancy, Ken Martin Electric, Kranz Funeral Home, Total Com, Thabet Funeral Home, Erla?s Food Center, Cass City Hardware, John and Pam Maharg, Lola Osentoski Flores, Roger and Gloria Nicholas, Frank and Jeri Tordai, Bill and Shirley Zinnecker, various individual post 3644 members, Schneeberger?s, Osentoski Realty, Self Serve Lumber Company and Heinlein Awning Company.
The outside renovations are only phase one. Phase two is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2011, and will include the interior, kitchen and hall area. The ceilings will be replaced, along with lighting improvements and more.
Stacey Tucker is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at tucker@tcadvertiser.com.
NeverFade Exterior Paint Receives 2010 Most Valuable Product (MVP) Award
640 days
Revolutionary NeverFade exterior paint named one of 31 Most Valuable Products (MVP) for 2010 in awards competition held by Building Products magazine. The exterior paint resists fading, algae, fungus, stains and abrasions and has a 15-year warranty.
(Vocus) August 16, 2010 — NeverFade? paint, warranted to last 15 years against fading, has been named a winner of the 2010 Most Valuable Product (MVP) Awards presented by Building Products magazine. Manufactured by APV Engineered Coatings, NeverFade professional exterior paint is formulated with Kynar Aquatec? polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to make it resistant to fading, algae, fungus, stains and abrasions.
According to editors at Building Products magazine, the 31 nationwide winners of the 2010 Most Valuable Products Awards were selected by a panel of independent judges ?for their innovation and value to the contractor and consumer.? NeverFade paint was introduced to the marketplace in early 2010 and became instantly popular with professional painters and contractors.
?While the residential construction industry sees hundreds of new products introductions each year, the MVP winners stand apart for their thoughtful design, smart technologies, or even pure wow factor,? says Jean Dimeo, editorial director for Building Products and ebuild.com. ?In a struggling economy, it?s innovations like these that can help contractors woo customers, save time and money, and surpass the competition.?
APV Engineered Coatings worked with Arkema, Inc. to create NeverFade paint. Kynar Aquatec is dispersed into the water-based formula for NeverFade paint, so volatile organic compounds (commonly referred to as VOCs) are drastically reduced, making NeverFade very eco-friendly. The homopolymer in Kynar Aquatec is a tough, engineered thermoplastic that offers a unique balance of properties. As a result, NeverFade paint withstands harsh thermal, chemical and ultraviolet environmental conditions. In essence, it resists abrasions, restricts the growth of mold and mildew, and will not pick up dirt.
?We created this top-of-the-line exterior paint with ultraviolet blockers and high quality pigments mixed with fluoropolymer resin to prevent against fading and chalking,? says David Venarge, chairman of APV Engineered Coatings out of Akron, Ohio. ?To show our confidence in this product, we provide an unprecedented 15-year warranty against fading. In the unlikely event that someone is obliged to apply the warranty, we will provide the replacement of the product and payment for job-related labor costs.?
Available nationwide for use on both residential and commercial projects, NeverFade may be applied to vinyl siding ( A plastic exterior cladding for a house, used for decoration and weatherproofing, as an alternative to traditional wood siding or other materials such as aluminum or fiber cement siding. It is an engineered product, manufactured primarily f, PVC, wood, aluminum siding, stucco, masonry, and fiber cement surfaces. Since each paint order is custom made, NeverFade is available in an unlimited number of colors.
MVP Award winners are featured in the Summer 2010 issue of Building Products magazine and on the magazine?s website, ebuild.com.
Founded in Akron, Ohio in 1878, APV Engineered Coatings manufactures innovative,
custom engineered products that are sold worldwide to a wide variety of industries. For more information on products and services, visit www.apvcoatings.com or call 800-772-3452.
NeverFade paint is sold under a trademark license from ARKEMA INC. which is the owner of the KYNAR and KYNAR AQUATEC Trademarks.
Release: http://mediaroom.apvcoatings.com/newsrelease-cid-1-id-12.htm
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APV Engineered Coatings
Kathy Ziprik
828-890-8065
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Flooding Closes Courthouse Office, Causes Health Concerns
640 days
The office of Marriage and Firearms Licenses in the Bibb County Courthouse was closed Monday?due to flooding. The flooding?happened over the? the weekend, and according to employees,?it was just one of many incidents.
Barbara Patmon went to the Courthouse Monday with her fiance Richard?James to apply for a marriage license for their?wedding?on August 28th.
She says?was disappointed the office was closed?and the delay means they’ll be cutting it close,?”hopefully we get it all done before the 28th because we can’t get married without it!”
County officials say rain and clogged city drains caused about one inch of water to flood parts of the Courthouse basement.?
Probate Court Judge?William Self?is well acquainted with the Courthouse’s troubles,??”I’ve been here 21 years and its been a recurring problem.”
He supervises the office, and says its the third time its flooded in less than four months.
Monday the office?was damp and smelled a little moldy, but he says?past flood waters have been accompanied by?the foul stench of?sewage.
?
“Its a hazard, the copiers the computers and the power strips, are now on wet carpet, I consider that an electrical hazard.”
Employees say the water backs up through a drain in the office’s kitchen. The drain is about the size of a manhole cover and Monday you could see standing water beneath it.
Employees also say the powdery white substance covering parts of kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra is mold, and that has Self concerned for their health.
“I am not comfortable reopening in that location, I think I have subjected my staff and the public to too many risks.”
The Mayor’s Office says they don’t know if city sewers caused the flooding. Spokesman Andrew Blascovich says a SPLOST raised the money to re-do the old sewer system, but so far its been a matter of priorities and other parts of the system have come first.
He also says?engineers will be on the site?Monday and Tuesday to determine the cause of the flooding and?what to do next. ?
Self says, after two decades of the same thing, he refuses to live with it any longer and plans to ask County Commissioners for a new temporary location Tuesday.
County Commissioner Lonzy Edwards says he’ll support Self’s request and bring it before the board at their regularly scheduled meeting.
Lowe’s 2Q profit rises 10 pct; cuts sales outlook
641 days
NEW YORK ? People bought more air conditioners and grills at Lowe’s Cos. in early summer, boosting second-quarter net income 10 percent, but overall spending was hurt by hot weather and the weak economy, the home-improvement retailer said Monday.
The No. 2 home improvement retailer joined a long line of companies in sounding a cautious note about consumer spending and cut its yearly revenue guidance as worries grow about a stalling economy.
Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press that Americans are responding to programs such as the federal cash-for-appliances rebates and sales but says 2010 is a “bouncing along the bottom” year.
“We view 2010 as a year of transition for the home improvement industry and we don’t expect consistent improvement in core demand until the fundamentals of the labor and housing markets improve,” said Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock in a call with analysts.
Spending remained marginally positive overall. Revenue from stores open at least a year rose 1.6 percent.
Revenue at stores open at least a year is a key indicator of a retailer’s performance because it excludes growth at stores that open or close during the year.
But Americans remain cautious, spending on carpets or kitchen cabinets (Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integra, but not as much as they would have a few years ago, COO Larry Stone said.
“We do see some movement in kitchen cabinet sales, albeit not as strong as we would like to see it,” Stone said in a call with analysts.
Carpet sales were strong, but not as strong as in prior years, he said.
“We’re seeing good lift, but just not as bigger-ticket as we would have three or four years in go in product like that, so the carpet jobs are just doing smaller rooms or, (smaller) in terms of square footage versus what we did several years ago.”
Home sales have declined recently after getting a boost early in the year from tax credits, which expired at the end of April. Home buyers tend to spend on items such as new appliances or paint soon after moving in.
Lowe’s net income rose to $832 million, or 58 cents per share, in the quarter ended July 30. That’s up from $759 million, or 51 cents per share.
Revenue grew 4 percent to $14.36 billion, which fell short of the company’s expectations.
Analysts were expecting a profit of 59 cents per share and $14.52 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters.
The company runs 1,724 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Lowe’s said it now expects a profit of $1.38 to $1.45 per share this year, up from a previous estimate of $1.37 to $1.47 per share. But it now expects its revenue to rise about 4 percent, rather than 5 to 7 percent. That suggests a total of about $49.11 billion in revenue, down from $49.58 billion to $50.53 billion.
Analysts expect a profit of $1.42 per share and revenue of $49.57 billion on average. Lowe’s fiscal year ends Jan. 28.
Revenue from stores open at least a year is expected to grow about 2 percent instead of 2 to 4 percent.
The company forecast a profit of 28 cents to 32 cents per share in the third quarter, with revenue up 3 to 5 percent, to a range of $11.72 billion to $11.97 billion.
Analysts expect a profit of 31 cents per share and $11.94 billion in revenue.
Lowe’s chief rival Home Depot reports second-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Janney Capital Markets analyst David Strasser said he believed Lowe’s stock should benefit from “a sigh of relief” that the results weren’t worse. “But risk still remains as the macro recovery remains elusive,” he added.
Shares rose 11 cents to close at $19.70 Monday.
___
Associated Press Writer Marley Seaman contributed to this report.
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