November 9, 2010—Bob Murray, VP of Economic Affairs with McGraw Hill, and Kemp Harr discuss his Construction Outlook Publication for 2011. Listen to the interview to hear Bob say that construction spending on "starts" for 2011 will be up 8% overall, up 27% in Single Family housing, and up 16% in Commercial Buildings. Bob also summarizes by saying that much of the construction investment in 2011 goes toward "refurbishing."
November 8, 2010—Werner Braun, President of the Carpet and Rug Institute, and Kemp Harr discuss YTD carpet sales and the agenda for this week's annual meeting. Listen to the interview to hear more about the Keynote speaker, Andy Wright of Dutko Worldwide. The CRI annual meeting will be this Thursday, November 11 at 10 a.m. at the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center.
November 5, 2010—Fred Reitz (President), Bob Wagner (President-Elect), and Michelle Miller (Executive VP), with the North American Association of Floor Covering Distributors discuss their upcoming annual meeting which will be held November 16-18 at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Listen to the interview to hear more about the health of flooring distributors overall and details about the meeting.
November 3, 2010—Summer Turner, owner of two House of Carpets stores in Middle Tennessee, and Kemp Harr discuss her recent appointment to the board of directors for the World Floor Covering Association. Listen to the interview to hear more about Summer's stores and the WFCA.
November 2, 2010—Allison Rea, Director of Marketing with FloorExpo (FEI Group), and Kemp Harr discuss how her members' primary promotion medium is the internet. Listen to the interview to hear more details about what works and doesn't work with this group of professional flooring contractors focused in the builder and multi-family sectors of the flooring business.
November 1, 2010—Jim Mudd, the newly elected president of the National Floorcovering Alliance, and Kemp Harr discuss details about his retail flooring business in Louisville, Kentucky. Listen to the interview to hear more about Sam Kinnaird's Flooring and the NFA.
October 29, 2010—Kaye Gosline, Director of Global A&D for Milliken, and Kemp Harr discuss the traffic and trends at NeoCon East in Baltimore. Listen to the interview to hear more.
October 26, 2010—Roger Farabee, Sr. VP of Marketing with Unilin and Mohawk Hard Surfaces, and Kemp Harr discusses the Human Habitat display at the Dallas Zoo (a hard surface tie-in with the Smartstrand Challenge). Roger also discusses his outlook on why hardwood is forecasted to take market share as the economy starts to recover. Listen to the interview to hear more details from Roger's perspective.
October 25, 2010—Jeff Levin, counsel with the Coalition for American Hardwood Parity (CAHP), discusses last week's filing of an unfair trade petition regarding imported engineered wood flooring from China. Listen to the interview to hear who is part of the CAHP and what they hope to gain by filing this petition.
October 22, 2010—Kermit Baker, a leading Harvard Economist, and Kemp Harr discuss two very positive economic indicators released this week. The American Institute of Architecture's Billing Index is over 50 for the first time in two and a half years and the Leading Indicator for Remodeling shows that spending for home improvements will increase by double digits next year. Listen to the interview for more details.