New Multi-Brand Accounts New Accounts Displacement/Placements Remodeling Activity Our dealers are reporting that business has slowed in the past two weeks and that now they are finding customers shopping again. This may be related to the barrage of negative economic news and the stock market declines of the last 5 – 6 weeks.(CH) (PG) (RM) Costal Design Concepts, Laguna Hills –CA. Mike Oeser has sold two large Decora’ jobs for a total value of $35K. Westerns States Cabinets, Santa Ana, Carson, Laguna Niguel, CA; These locations sold four Diamond jobs this week for a value of $30K. The spiffs and promotions have ready helped drive business to MBCI brands. (CH) DirectBuy, Long Beach, CA. This location has sold two Kitchen Craft projects already for a value of $25K and are just waiting for account to be opened to place orders. (CH) Probuild, La Mesa-Rancho San Diego, CA – The designer told me last week she did not sell any special order items at all in the month of June. (PG) Jackson Design and Remodeling, San Diego, CA – They have been moving some orders from De Wils to Diamond due to price. The promos have really helped. (PG) Kitchen and Bath Experts, San Diego, CA – They are in need of a good quality inexpensive line that they can get in 3 days to sell to house flippers, etc that offers more than the limited Chinese sku’s. (PG) ● Eagle Construction, Agoura Hills, CA has placed a very Diamond order, their first in almost a year and a half. They actively pursue business from “repo flippers” and use import cabinets for the low end properties, but Diamond/Decora in the nicer ones. (RM) Projects ● Cabinet Outlet, Anaheim, CA is bidding on a 8 unit cabinet rehab project in Contractor’s Choice for a potential volume of $10K. (CH) ● MJM Partners, Temple City, CA is bidding KC Aurora against Cabinets 200 on a 55-unit condo project in Pomona. (220 boxes/ $45K). We are at a.21 + freight. Cabinets 2000 is tough. (RM) ● Channel Islands Do-It-Best, Port Hueneme has resumed ordering for the Navy Housing projects in Ventura County, CA with CC. They have orders in for about 5 – 6 units/$10K. (RM) Competition Medallion Cabinetry is now offering custom color program for their Designer Gold and Designer cabinet levels. The customer can bring in any color and Medallion will match it. This process takes around eight weeks to get cabinets delivered to the consumer. (CH) Pacific Crest, Washington has replaced the Southern California Rep agency with one based in Arizona. My Directbuy in Long Beach, Ca is now going to replace the Pacific Crest displays and selection center with Kitchen Craft because of this change of agencies. (CH) Riegsecker Cabinets Indiana is out looking to setup dealers in my region, They have done a mailing to all dealers and are calling to set up meetings with these showrooms. (CH) See the ad from Riegsecker attached. (PG) Western States, Carlsbad, CA – They were able to transfer a large bid from Dura Supreme to KC because KC was willing to make a custom glaze (Seashell Black). KC came in 10% less than Dura’s Electra line. However they mentioned Dura is a ¾” box.(PG) Pacific Crest had a price increase July 1 st. They went from a.30 factor to a.315 factor in San Diego, a 5% increase. (PG) Market Notes Dealers are asking if DSK brands have charged the glaze wiping process? They are seeing very uneven coverage on most orders with glaze wiped from medium to none at all on the same cabinet. (CH) SDK Glaze - I visited a La Grange Palomino job last week and the same problem came up as Chris describes above. (PG) SDK glaze – same issue on a Shiloh, Amaretto Crème order for Interior Cabinet Corp, Goleta. Every door needs attention for the issue described above. (RM) Hawaii: The economy keeps getting worse and worse. More dealers are going out of business all the time. It seems the only thing that is selling at all in HI is KC. More Chinese product is being brought in all the time due to both the large Asian population in the islands and the close proximity to China. (SW) ●Orange County Register: The number of transactions in which a home sells for less than the owner owes the bank is up 74% in the region this year, mainly due to a doubling of those so-called “short sales” in the Inland Empire, the Southern California Multiple Listing Service reported. Short sales are increasing as lenders become more amenable to approving deals rather than letting homes go through a costly foreclosure. (SW) Bakersfield Californian: Kern County has the 15th weakest economy in the nation, according to the Associated Press Economic Stress Index. The monthly index measures financial strain across the United States by examining unemployment, bankruptcy filings and foreclosures. The latest data covers May. Kern County has a 15.7 percent unemployment rate, according to the California Employment Development Department. And 4.77 percent of its residential and commercial properties are in some stage of foreclosure, according to Realty Trac, an Irvine real estate data company. (SW) Pacific West Area Executive Summary 07/16/10 Highline-Southwest Key Targets Pacific West Northwest Southwest Financial Metrics