RE-PETE: The inimitable Peter Spirer, founder and former chairman of Horizon Industries, is back in the game. Spirer, a masterful marketer and superb strategist, has been an industry observer since 1992, when Mohawk Industries acquired Horizon. He says he’s kept up with the industry these past 16 years and really missed the excitement and the warm relationships. He explains that when the opportunity presented itself, he seized it, and he’s delighted to be back in the business and with such a fascinating company. He and Bob Rawlins, who was a Horizon vice president, were appointed national marketing managers for Max Windsor Floors, manufacturer of high quality engineered products. In the U.S. four years, the California-based company has confined its sales to the western states. Now, Spirer and Rawlins will create a national distribution network and further develop the Max Windsor brand. That’s a win-win.

MERGER: Gilford Flooring of Jeffersonville, Ind., and Bruce Wholesale, two long-established Midwest distributors, have joined forces. “We are combining the human, product and logistical resources of these two distribution families to make one of the strongest in the Midwest,” said Dennis C. Cook, Gilford president. A large contingent of Bruce employees has joined the Gilford staff, including David Dobbs, a 30-year veteran who is now product manager for several lines and director of technical services, which embraces installation training. Also, David Feeback, Heather Leis, John Peck and Jamie Houtz have joined the Gilford sales team. The coalition was smooth with little fallout.

GOING UP: Tarkett Residential has announced a 5% to 7% increase in prices for its residential resilient products, effective with shipments on April 1. Guillaume Laverdure, Tarkett Residential North America president, cited “ongoing increases in raw materials, energy and freight costs.”

NUMBING: RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its January report, which showed filings—default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions—covered 233,001 properties during the month, an increase of 8% from the previous month and an increase of nearly 57% from January 2007. “January’s numbers demonstrate that foreclosure activity is continuing on its upward trend, substantially increasing from a year ago in many states,” said James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. Nevada continues to document the highest foreclosure rate among the 50 states: a 45% decrease from the previous month but a 95% increase from January 2007. California’s January foreclosure rate, which rose 120% from the previous year, ranked second highest and Florida the third highest. Other states among the top 10 were Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Georgia,Ohio and Michigan. There’s enough misery to go around, though some places get hit harder than others.

CHINA, TOO: The U.S. economy may be sputtering, but things aren’t too much better in other countries. Take China—outsourcing has hit the hub of the Pearl River Delta, with soaring costs pushing the world’s longtime workshop for low- cost goods to move its factories overseas. Rising raw material and energy prices, the strengthening of the yuan against the dollar and new business regulations are forcing labor-intensive factories to hunt for rock-bottom production costs elsewhere. Many are opting to move to low-cost countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, while others are seeking cheaper places to do business in China. Chinese exporters are also raising prices, threatening the supply of cheap products to the U.S. And to add to our woes, higher raw material prices and the stronger yuan “are pushing up prices for the U.S. consumer.” The question now confronting Chinese economists is: China’s labor costs are still only 5% of those of the U.S. South Korea’s labor costs compared with the U.S. was at 5% in 1975, but 30 years later it was 50%. So, how long will China take to reach the 50% mark? Because of the country’s size, experts think it could take 60 years. I guess some of us will never know.