Article Number : 5006 |
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| Date | 10/26/2009 7:01:44 AM |
| Written By | LGM & Associates Technical Flooring Services |
| View this article at: | //floorbiz.com/BizResources/NPViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=5006 |
| Abstract | The North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors announced that next year’s conference will be held in conjunction with that of the North American Building Materials Distribution Association (NBMDA) in Colorado Springs, Colo., in November. The NAFCD had been... |
| Article | The North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors announced that next year’s conference will be held in conjunction with that of the North American Building Materials Distribution Association (NBMDA) in Colorado Springs, Colo., in November. The NAFCD had been exploring a co-location event with a like-minded distribution group for some time. According to Moe Desmarais, executive director, the initiative makes sense on many levels. First, an NBMDA distributor is not much different than an NAFCD distributor. “They all have warehouses, inside and outside salespeople, inventory, customers, warranty issues, credit issues, accounts payable, etc. So 80% of what they do is a perfect match.” Second, the co-locating allows for the sharing of some expenses, like combined general sessions where the speakers will identify with distributors as a whole. As for the Distributor Marketplace, the exhibit hall will be divided where one side will be for NAFCD manufacturers, and the other for building material dealers. “Theirs is more of a tabletop show, while ours is a booth event,” Desmarais said. “This is an experiment that I think will work out well.” To illustrate the similarities between the two groups, five NAFCD distributors belong to both groups. One such distributor is Peter Fahey, flooring division manager of Clem Lumber and Distributing in Alliance, Ohio, who endorses the move. “To me it’s very interesting because many of the things I’ve seen in floor covering happened in building materials years ago. You had buying groups and co-ops years ago and you had Home Depot impacting lumber yards long before it hit the floor covering people. You had channel conflicts such as Weyerhauser, Louisiana Pacific and Georgia Pacific—multi billion dollar building material suppliers—getting in and out of running their own distribution several times. So I’ve seen a lot of the same trends, experiences, forces in that industry as I am seeing in this industry now.” Then there’s the convenience aspect. “I like the idea. It makes it easier for my company. One destination, multiple meetings.” |