Something to write home about
www.modernwoodworking.com 7 APRIL 2009 By Je Crissey jcrissey@rrpub.com [ [ [ [ [ T H E F I R S T W O R D ] Something to write home about Virginia helps in-state wood products industry grow despite the downturn Here at Modern Woodworking, we re-cently received feedback from a reader who thought our news coverage is too negative, and I can understand why he feels that way: So-and-so's sales down 30 percent ; Widget Mfg. lays o 150 employees ; Acme Wood Prod-ucts closes plant, moves operations to Asia . Even this month's feature ar-ticle based on a survey of Modern Woodworking recipients shows bleak prospects in the housing market for the near term. But our industry news coverage is simply a re ection of the overall health of the wood products industry, and recently there hasn't been that much to cheer about. So when good news does come along, we want to be sure we report it to you. Last month, 90-year-old industry giant Vaughan-Bassett Fur-niture announced that it will invest more than $2 million at its facility in Galax, Va. In past years this news item might have garnered a brief mention, but this year it is signi cant consider-ing that most companies across the country are laying o workers and scaling back production. Perhaps the real story behind Vaughan-Bassett's announcement is the e orts of the Virginia Economic Devel-opment Partnership, the Virginia Tobac-co Commission and the Virginia Gov-ernor's o ce, which contributed almost $300,000 to the project. According to the state's press release, the city of Galax successfully competed with alternative sites in Asia, and the project is estimated to save 500 existing jobs and create 100 new jobs. is news comes on the heels of last year's Swedwood's production fa-cility opening in southern Virginia (as we reported on in our August 2008 is-sue), a project that the VEDP and other state agencies played a vital role in pro-curing. Unfortunately, we can't all have manufacturing operations in a state like Virginia that has resources available to retain its manufacturing base and create employment opportunities. One piece of good news from the survey in this month's feature article is increasing optimism among wood prod-ucts manufacturers for 2010 and beyond. When it comes to reporting good news, we look forward to bringing you more of it, sooner rather than later. Editor Je Crissey, ext. 1244 jcrissey@rrpub.com Executive Editor Brooke Baldwin Wisdom, ext. 1501 bwisdom@rrpub.com Contributing Editors Howard Grivna Ken Rolfes VP/Editorial Linda Longton, ext. 1438 llongton@rrpub.com EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Art/Production Director Tony Brock Art Director Lyndsey Kone Production Designer Kenneth Stubbs Advertising Production Coordinator Ernestine Morgan Production Manager Mary Springer Webmaster Rob Ho man SALES Vice President/Group Publisher W. W. Chip Wisdom, ext. 1222 cwisdom@rrpub.com Associate Publisher Karen Roberts, ext. 1214 kroberts@rrpub.com Account Executives Kendall Crawford, ext. 1063 kcrawford@rrpub.com; Matt Ochocki, ext. 1314 mochocki@rrpub.com; Classi ed Sales Domita Sanders, ext.1250 dsanders@rrpub.com MARKETING Marketing/Research Ginger Love CIRCULATION RANDALL REILLY PUBLISHING COMPANY 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E. Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 (800) 633-5953 Editorial Fax (205) 248-1018 Chairman, President/CEO Mike Reilly COO/VP David Wright CFO/Treasurer Shane Elmore Executive Vice President, Brent Reilly VP/Industrial Media Group Woodrow Wilson Wisdom Circulation Director Julie Puckett Circulation Analyst Tara Lightsey In Memoriam: H. Pettus Randall II H.Pettus Randall III MW Editor's note: All 2008 issues of Modern Woodworking have been ar-chived in our new digital edition format and are now available at www.modernwoodworking-digital.com. Click on the Issues button on the top right of the window to access the archives.