Document pebNMoaXMGLnJm7o2vYDv66ja

KAl/.i GYPSUM COMPANY,OlC. To G. M. Thomas . At Antioch Copies to A. P. Alessandri B. F. Crosby P. D. Orleman if INTER-OFFICE MEMORANDUM 1 j J. W. Blewett D. J. McClellan T. V. Smith /Date May 2, 1972 from/^o^ LaFayette ^^"^AnTioch V/ Subject APRIL MONTHLY ACCESSORY PRODUCTS REPORT -- DISTRICTS 2100. 2200 & 2600 I. -S-A-L-E-S--V--S-.--F-O-R-E-C-A-S-Tj ; ' li ;; SALES Dist. 2100 - Oakland Month of April 383,683 Year-to-date 2,068,762 FORECAST 642,000 2,094,000 % OF FORECAST 60% 99% Dist. 2200 - Sacramento Month of April 194,687 Year-to-date 1,638,514 520,000 1,764,000 37% 93% Dist. 2600 Month of April Year-to-date 20,112 118,801 48,000 160,000 42% 74% MONTH TOTAL: 598,482 POUNDS = 299 Tons II. MARKET CONDITIONS Our sales volume dropped drastically this month; the cause seems to be three-fold due to customer acceptance of Polymeric Finish Powder Compound, quality problems with K-Spray and April 1st price increase. Details v/ill be covered later in this report. KG-0114 2- f APRIL MONTHLY ACCESSORY PRODUCTS REPORT (cont'd) f III. COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS Competitive companies did not follow in line with our April 1st price increase. Announcement of our price modification caused our regular customers to go shop prices with competitors. And in most cases, competition quoted prices lower than our old price. We will have to be competitive to regain our position in the market. Our price increase was cancelled May 1, 1972. ' IV. PRODUCT QUALITY AND SERVICE A. QUALITY; 1. PM - Working well. 2. TOPPING - Working well. 3. POWDER JOINT COMPOUND (POLYMERIC) a. Joint | * Compound: Working satisfactorily once the tapers get '< used to working with it. b. Finishing Compound: Latest revised formula code 4-14-1 FCXS ! did not break down in the wet mix as ' previous formulas did. However, customers ; still do not like it because of the follov! ing reasons; 1. Mixing; Difficult to mix for handwork; mixing one bag to slightly less than l/2 bucket of water as recommenae material will mix together and mix ends up okay , for Ames tool work but too thin for hand work. Part of a second bag of powder has to be added to the bucket and remixed to get the viscosity heavy enough for hand work. 2. Workability: Tapers claim product is too sticky and tacky for 1st metal and window wrap hand work; mud pulls hard and sticks to their knives. Product drags slightly in skim box and needs more slip. Latest field test was conducted with Service D/IV on April 27th prior to their ordering of the'new I producL; aL the end of the test, they were not i satisfied with the results. We saved the order ! by converting the customer to Pre-Mix Topping. 1 Other customers such as Pace D/W dislike our Finish Compound, will not switch to Pre-Mix so we have lost their business to Richtex who sells them a casein/starch product which is working satisfactorily. APRIL MONTHLY ACCESSORY PROf~ 'TS ,REPORT (cont'd) r QUALITY 4. KSS: To date we have not been able to regain the ceiling texture business from the two volume accounts we lost due to Asbestos clumps which plugged their Acoustic guns. The Research Dept, has revised the KSS formula and one batch will be field tested the week of May 8th. A report of performance will be submitted at that time. . 5. TSS: Wall Texture working well. 6. TAPE: Working well. 7. CORNERBEAD AND NAILS: Working well. B. SERVICE I The Accessory truck driver continues to do an excellent job; the truck is k valuable sales tool. V. GENERAL COMMENTS: Sales this moiith were quite disheartening but market conditions continue to look good through the 2nd quarter and once above problems are corrected we'll be back at the 600 plus ton sales volume. JL:bfw