Articles by Mike Miazga

Forte Shareholders Report increased sales.

PVF Roundtable sets another new attendance record.

In this high-tech, hustle-and-bustle day and age, a phone call to businesses in many walks of life likely will include dealing with some form of nonhuman interaction.

One of my three beagle dogs recently lost a portion of her ear after an attack by a neighborhood dog. Fenway (my wife’s a huge Red Sox fan; we had another beagle named Boston) had to undergo emergency surgery to save/reconstruct the ear.

In last month’s issue, a panel of leading PHCP executives made its feelings known on a variety of issues related to government regulation and how the current political climate is affecting the industry. In the second of this two-part series, the group delves into issues related to the everyday workings of its companies, including staff growth, e-commerce and attracting young talent into the industry.

Bill Bootz, owner of Houston-based industrial PVF master distributor Team Alloys, didn’t know much about the business when he first started as an outside salesman back in the 1980s. “My first sales call to SMS of Texas was on Sept. 18, 1989,” he recalls in vivid detail. “They told me my price was higher than domestic. I said, ‘What’s domestic?’ I knew absolutely nothing about the business — completely zero.”

Trends and forecasts always are frequent topics of discussion in the PHCP/PVF industry. That definitely holds true for the master distribution end of the equation. A group of master distribution executives recently spoke with Supply House Times on a variety of topics related to their companies’ roles in the industry.

Business is starting to heat up in 2014.

Now more than ever, legislative and regulatory decisions play a major role in the way PHCP and PVF distributors conduct business. A blue-chip panel of distributors had plenty to say about that and many other hot-button topics during an exclusive roundtable interview conducted by Supply House Times and the American Supply Association during NetworkASA 2013 at the Renaissance Marriott DC Downtown Hotel in Washington.

If the preshow buzz is any indication, the co-locating of the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show and the International Builders’ Show already is a smash hit. The two major industry trade shows go under the same roof for the first time Feb. 4-6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center as part of what is being billed as Design & Construction Week.