May 5, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

When Cory Meyer took over as president and CEO of Catalina Lighting in 2006, he realized he had to change the company’s business model to drive profits at the struggling company. Catalina Lighting, a designer, manufacturer and distributor, had experienced back-to-back years of losses and the company needed to change. He also realized he had to get his employees involved in examining the operating inefficiencies within Catalina Lighting.

How he changed the corporate culture and the direction of this company is the subject of a cover story in Smart Business magazine this month. The article details how Meyer has successfully turned the company around by communicating more effectively with his employees, reducing costs and inefficiencies and examining every aspect of...Read More

May 1, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

There seems to be no good news for the housing sector. The Commerce Department reported today that construction spending in March dropped by 1.1%, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.12 trillion, the fifth decline in the past six months. The sharp drop off was fueled by a decrease of 4.6% in private residential spending. Before a very slight increase in February, housing construction had fallen for 23 consecutive months.

May 1, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

For the third consecutive month, manufacturing activity contracted in April, according to a report issued today by the Institute of Supply Management. Employment in the manufacturing sector also dropped to its lowest level in five years, the report said.

“Manufacturers are in a situation where both new orders and production are slowly declining, but prices continue to rise at highly inflationary rates,” said Norbert J. Nore, CPM, chair of ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee. “Bright spots this month are the growth in the Backlog of New Orders Index after six months of decline, continues in new export orders and a reduction in customers’ inventories.”

Another bright spot: the manufacturing index registered 48.6, the same as in March, but slightly higher than the 48 predicted by many economists. A reading above 50 indicates the manufacturing economy is expanding; below 50 percent it is generally contracting.

April 10, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Here’s a little bit of this and that from the recent NAHAD convention April 5-9 in historic Williamsburg, Virginia:

* NAHAD’s Web site will soon be updated, according to executive vice president Joe Thompson. NAHAD’s site makes it easy for manufacturers and distributors to get information on how to start and implement NAHAD’s hose assembly guidelines, for example...

* Mergers and acquisitions continue to be at the forefront of the industry. There have been several buyouts in recent months and more are expected. In fact, watch for a Southern hydraulics distributor to purchase an electrical supplies distributor in the next month. We were asked to not identify the companies involved since terms haven’t been finalized...

* Also, the topic of manufacturers buying distributors was mentioned by several distribu...Read More

March 20, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Housing starts in Canada during January rose back over 220,000 units on an annualized basis. That’s above December’s 185,000 units, according to Canada’s Mortgage and Housing Corp.

Strong housing markets have been one of the saviors of the Canadian economy over the past few years. Unlike the United States, Canada’s homebuilding activity has stayed strong and relatively even, according to Reed Construction Data.

Canada has not had the same degree of problems with the subprime mortgage meltdown as the United States, nor has there been an excessive run up in prices, leading to a speculative collapse.

RCD’s CanaData group expects a softening in housing demand in Canada as a result of the overall slowdown in the economy, some loss of affordability and the after-effects of satisfied pent-up demand resulting from strong ...Read More
Industries: Construction, Executive Management