For 2010, a new group of entrepreneurs joined the program’s first seminar which consisted of a half day session with Jason Heard, event director at IDS West, and Don Cleland, from Cleland Creative. The tradeshow exhibition seminar focused on practical tips of preparing for trade shows in advance, utilizing show organizers, designing an effective booth space, and taking advantage of the media. Some of participants had previous experience with trade shows, while others had never exhibited at one before, but all agreed that they learned something new and found value in the seminar. The branding portion helped the group identify themselves as a business and their target audience. Many of today’s modern tools on the Internet including social media were covered and left participants thinking not how they want to be perceived, but how they actually by prospective clients.
On June 9th the Japan Log House Association held its AGM followed by its annual awards ceremony. As BC Wood is a member of the association, we were able to take part in both of these events.
The format of this year’s AGM was different from past years in that they did not bring in a guest speaker. Instead they had members of the technical committees report on the various research projects that had been carried out last year. Two particularly interesting projects were the successful seismic test on a 3 story machine cut log home and research on how to improve the air and water tightness of log wall assemblies. The later has become quite important to buyers as awareness has grown about energy efficient homes, while insurance companies are getting tougher on water penetration issues related to typhoons. Some of this research will be of interest to Canadian manufacturers so I want to look into how we can make this information available to members.
As always, the Log House Association also presented their housing start statistics for the year. As to be expected the numbers were down due to the economy. For the year, 1,759 starts were reported of which 16% were from Canada. The leader is still Finland which had a market share of 41% followed by the three Baltic countries which combined for 21%. Surprisingly even Japan has surpassed Canada with an 18% share. The basic reason for this is that machine cut log homes, which not many Canadian firms produce, dominated the market with a 95% share. On a positive note, as the economy strengthens association members are expecting a better year in 2010 in both total starts and in the market share of the more expensive handcraft and post & beam homes. It is expected that handcraft should go back above 10% this year.
Winners Lyndon Penner & his client Watanabe-san
Awards Ceremony
After the AGM, the Log House Association gave out awards to the best designed log homes of the previous year. Last year BC Wood was able to get the association to expand its mandate to cover timberframe homes as well. As a result, timberframe homes were included in the award category for “post and beam type structures” and the client of our very own Hamill Creek Timber Homes won it! This house is a doctors vacation property in the mountains of Nagano. Having visited it myself, I can also attest to the beauty of the design and the timbers used. By coincidence, Lyndon Penner of Hamill Creek happens to be in Japan now so he was also able to take part in the ceremony. Congratulations Hamill Creek!
Miho & Chariman Ido
Perhaps the best news of the night was that our 86 year old chairman Ido-san has been given a clean bill of health by his doctors. He was falsely diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year which came as a tremendous shock to everyone. He has been the heart and soul of the association for so long that no one can imagine it without him. During his speech after the awards ceremony, he promised to work harder than ever in this last year of his term as chairman. Ganbare Ido-san!
This 9 module sales workshop will provide you with the concept, knowledge and understanding of sales techniques. Through appropriate exercises, you will refine your sales-development plan, practice strategies and techniques in a safe environment, and develop your skills, before interacting with prospects and customers.
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Time: 9:00am-4:30pm
Location: Sheraton – Guildford Hotel: 15269 104th Ave, Surrey, BC
Visits to Value-Added Wood Manufacturers on the Island
The first company I visited was Swiftsure Woodworkers in Victoria with Randi Walker and met with Peter McCutcheon, the President of Swiftsure Woodworkers. Swiftsure Woodworkers designs and manufacturers cabinetry for fine homes in the greater Gulf Islands region of BC. They have received multiple CARE awards and GEORGIE awards. The CARE award recognizes the winning efforts of Vancouver Island’s professional builders, developers, architects, interior designers, and sales and marketing professionals. The GEORGIE award by the Canadian Home Builders Association of BC recognizes excellence in home building. We also got a chance to check out the shop and see a CNC machine at work. This was the first time I saw a CNC machine at work and I was amazed.
Peter also mentioned they employ Joiner and Carpenter Apprentices from Vancouver Island University’s apprenticeship program. This is a great way to get hardworking and enthusiastic workers, and help develop the skill of the next generation of craftsmen. I do encourage all of the value-added wood products manufacturers to follow Peter’s footsteps in employing BC apprentices.
For more information on Swiftsure Woodworkers, please visit their website: www.swiftsurewoodworkers.com.
The next morning, I met with Dave Miller of M-Time Developments with Brian Ehrecke. They produce a number of different value-added wood products including panel wall homes. Their goal is to operate an ecologically and socially responsible milling operation which purchases the bulk of its logs from local, sustainably managed (and certified) sources. Dave talked to us about some interesting projects he has worked on and is currently working on. I don’t think I have ever met someone so enthusiastic and passionate about what they do as Dave Miller is. It was great meeting someone with so much enthusiasm.
For more information on M-Time Developments, please visit their website: www.m-timedevelopments.com. Also be sure to check out Dave’s new website: www.bamfield-millworks.com.
I then visited Vintage Woodworks with Brian Ehrecke which is located in what used to be a hotel decades ago. Vintage Wookworks is BC’s heritage millwork supplier. They specialize in providing restorations and restoration products for historic windows, doors, moulding, and brackets. Brian has been working on a technical project through the Business Innovation Partnership program with Vintage. I got a chance to go on a shop tour and see all of the different machines they use for producing different products. The most interesting part was seeing all of the improvements that were made through the project.
For more information on Vintage Woodworks, please visit their website: www.vintagewoodworks.ca.
The last company I visited was Douglas Grant Cabinetmakers in Victoria with Brian Ehrecke. This is another company located in a unique building. Douglas Grant Cabinetmakers provides quality finished kitchens, bathrooms, built-in furniture, and more. Douglas gave us a tour of his shop and showed us a gorgeous cabinet he was working on that showcased his attention to detail.
For more information on Douglas Grant Cabinetmakers, please visit their website: www.douglasgrantcabinetmakers.com.
I want to thank all of these companies for their time and interesting stories. I also want to thank Randi and Brian for taking me with them to visit the companies. I learned a lot about the value-added wood products industry look forward to meeting more companies!
interiorlifestyle 2010
This week “interiorlifestyle 2010″ was held at Tokyo Big Sight. This is one of the main interior design shows held in Japan and for many years the organizers have approached us to exhibit at it. I walked the show on Wednesday to do some research for our upcoming Tokyo Design Week program and also to see how the show was doing.
interiorlifestyle 2010
One of the reasons I have never really been interested in taking BC Wood members to this show is that it is heavy to household goods like kitchen accessories, clocks, lighting, and knick knacks. While the furniture area did look better than in previous years, it was still small compared to the other sections. The one positive in the furniture displays this year was the amount of wood on display. There was a good selection of attractive wooden tables and chairs. However, many of these seemed to be made from domestic Japanese wood species, which is a reflection of the Japanese government’s attempts to offset CO2 emissions by encouraging the use of domestic wood.
Aqua Wood
Aqua Wood
Walking around I came across quite a few interesting products. My favourite was a new product called Aqua Wood which is laminated decorative panel combining wood and acrylic strips. With the wood you can choose from Japanese oak, Japanese ash, and walnut. The acrylic strips come in several colours and allow light to shine through the panels creating a unique look as a wall covering, partitioning walls, countertops, etc. The panels come in two sizes (920mm x 1820mm and 920mm x 2320mm) and cost about Y180,000 ($2000) per panel.
Storage Doors
Storage Doors
Another display that I liked showcased doors with built in storage. The target market for these doors seems to be condos where space is at a premium so having extra storage anywhere is a plus. Some units were for the entrance and allowed for such things as slippers, keys, and bags to be neatly stowed away. Another example was of a bedroom door that had jewellery boxes built in.
French Pavilion
This show has always had a strong international presence and this year was no different. The surprising thing was that it was the European companies that were dominant this time. There was a big area for ASEAN and the Philippines had a large booth, but China was no where to be seen. The Europeans had a very large area made up of country pavilions from Italy, Germany, Portugal, France, etc.. Maybe with the weak US and European markets they are turning to Japan to make up some sales. As usual, Canada was represented by Umbra at this show.
It was interesting to see such new products and also meet with importers specializing in interior goods. However, my overall impression of the show has not changed and I still don’t think interiorlifestyle is a good fit for our members. Let’s get ready for Tokyo Design Week!
This year, BC Wood had a record number of participants including Brent Comber Originals, Martha Sturdy, Judson Beaumont & Straightline Design, Dexel Crafted, Park Studio, and first time participants John Ross Design and Christian Woo. Three of the companies (Dexel Crafted, Park Studio and Christian Woo) completed the Working Wood Mentoring Project that was part of the Business Innovation Partnership (BIP) last year. Watch the iforwood.com site for an upcoming video of these company’s thoughts on how the mentoring program helped them successfully compete in this high-end and high-energy trade event.
Our BC designers captured the interest of both the local and international press, and a number of popular magazines and bloggers interviewed all of them throughout the show. This is amazing exposure for our local designers/manufacturers and we will keep you posted on any press/media we earned from our participation here this week. You can check here for the first blog from the show: www.treehugger.com/files/2010/05/british-columbian-designers-at-icff.php. Congratulations to our amazing and talented BC Designers!
7 Photos
Not to be outdone, 2×4 starts surged ahead by 16.8% for the month! What was particularly impressive about this jump was that it wasn’t just due to rental units (up 20.1%). Single family homes were up 9.8% and spec housing was up 19.1%. Post and beam also had a strong month with starts increasing by 7%. Overall, wood housing starts were up 8.4%. It seems that wood is good these days!
These numbers are also confirming what I have been hearing from people in the wooden housing industry. Developers have been telling me that spec housing in certain areas of Tokyo is strong and industry people in general are optimistic that this year will see a significant turn-around over last. I also just met with an industry newspaper reporter who said he has been hearing the same thing from pre-cutters across Japan. He also suggested that the fierce price competition might be coming to an end as enough builders have gone out of business to relieve some of the excessive capacity that has existed here for years. It is sad to see people lose their jobs or companies, but for the sake of a profitable and healthy industry such a realignment was probably necessary.
The first was that homes/condos that are built for the needs of the elderly will hold their value better. This can include everything from the usage of barrier-free concepts to energy efficiency/ high-insulation values to proximity to good medical care. Basically, make sure you build for what the future purchaser is likely to want.
The second was to forget about all markets outside of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka. Young people have been abandoning rural areas for sometime leading to growth even in regional cities such as Sapporo, Sendai, Fukuoka, etc. (you can find no longer in use homes in the countryside for as little as $60,000!). However, as the population continues to decrease the young will also leave those cities in favour of the “Big Three” where the best job opportunities are. Chris was very positive about Tokyo in particular as it is and will remain the major commercial and cultural center in Japan as well as in Asia well into the future.
Based on his pessimism for rural areas, Chris has doubts about the value of resort developments including Niseko. After visiting Niseko he felt that there was too much farmland available that could be easily developed and thus there was little scarcity to continue pushing prices up. He didn’t feel there was a big enough difference in walking to the slopes versus driving 15-20 minutes to warrant the huge price premium. Chris seemed to feel the area was simply caught up in a classic real estate bubble created by the Australians that can no longer be maintained.
While I agreed with much of what Mr. Dillon said, especially about Tokyo versus the rest of the country, I somewhat disagreed with his outlook for Niseko. Unlike other resort areas in Japan, it truly is a special place based on its amazing annual snowfalls. It is also a short flight away from key markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Shanghai meaning that it will be a much more attractive “snow getaway” than Europe or North America for the wealthy but time challenged Asians.
Chris was correct in that Niseko’s village center is very poor especially in comparison with such famous resorts as Whistler, but I think that with the big Asian investors now involved in the area it is a matter of time before the area has world class amenities to complement the fabulous snow. Once this is done, being close to the village should be worth a nice premium particularly to the brand conscious Chinese.
I really appreciated the opportunity to listen to and meet Chris Dillon. He spent a lot of time researching for his book and has a lot of knowledge about the market so I highly recommend reading it if you are interested in the Japanese real estate market. I’ll be reading it very soon!
Wood Flooring Trends – The lowdown on the latest happenings in flooring
Canada is one of the world’s six biggest producers of wood flooring strips, alongside China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and Russia. The major part of Canada’s wood flooring production comes from some one hundred businesses based mainly in Quebec (two-thirds) and Ontario (one-third). Canada’s overall production in 2007 was approximately 400 million square feet of which 75% was exported (90% to the USA).
The Canadian industry has faced increased competition in recent years. Emerging countries (especially China) are lower-cost producers who have quickly positioned themselves in the Canadian and American markets. For example, Amercian imports from China went from $100 million in 2002 to over $1 billion in 2007. China’s worldwide exports quadrupled between 2002 and 2006 to over $2 billion. This trend significantly impacted Amercian flooring imports, which were assessed at $2.7 billion in 2007 as compared with $1.2 billion five years earlier. A similar situation occured in the Canadian market when imports (Chinese and others) increased by 600% over the past decade.
Note that Chinese production, the main threat to North Amercian producers, in mainly (75%) destined for domestic use within China. Engineered wood flooring, a product that sets the North Amercian industry apart from its rivals, is also undergoing tremendous growth. It now represents over half of China’s production capacity, equal to 807 million sq. ft. (75 million m2). This means that engineered wood flooring strips comprise a greater proportion of products imported from China. The growth of China’s engineered flooring strip industry in attributed to the difficulty of procuring enough hardwood to make solid flooring strips. Of China’s exports, most goes to Europe (40%) followed by Canada (13%) and the United States (26%).
To read more about the North American Situation, Engineered Wood Flooring Strips (multi-ply), Wide Strips, Innovations in Finishing, the Green Revolution, Esthetic Trends in Raw Material, and Changes in Distribution Channels, please click here
The premiers of the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan today opened the Shanghai-based Western Canada Trade and Investment Office, advancing Western Canada’s interests and bolstering economic ties in China.
The Western Canada Trade and Investment Office will further Western Canada’s global leadership in advanced industries including green technology, natural resources, agri-food and agriculture. It will also promote other sectors, including education, tourism and investment attraction. Shanghai was selected as it is China’s trade and financial hub, is the world’s second-busiest port, and has a population of more than 20 million people.
“Alberta has been at the forefront of Canada-China relations since the 1960s and we continue to seek new alliances in the region,” said Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. “The Shanghai office gives us an expanded presence as well as an ability to better serve our network of business partners and investors in this crucial market.”
The joint office is part of the recently forged New West Partnership agreement between Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan. The partnership has created Canada’s largest open, efficient and stable marketplace of nearly nine million people and a combined GDP of more than $550 billion. A key element of the Partnership is a commitment to collaborate on international initiatives, including sharing resources in international markets.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall believes “Saskatchewan, and the West, has what the world wants and needs. The economies of the New West Partnership are among the most robust and diversified you will find anywhere. We are making it as easy as possible for investors to do business in the West, and to pursue opportunities which only exist here.”
“British Columbia is pleased to partner with Saskatchewan and Alberta in promoting Western Canada’s advantages to Chinese investors and partners,” said British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell. “British Columbia already operates three of its own trade and investments offices in China and the new Shanghai office will help build on our position as Canada’s Pacific Gateway.”
The Western Canada Trade and Investment Office is located on the 20th floor of The Centre building at 989 Changle Road. The phone number is 21-5116-6860.
The premiers are in China to promote trade and investment opportunities with Western Canada, along with the region’s geographic and infrastructure advantages, including the region’s multi-modal Pacific Gateway and Corridor transportation system. The premiers are also in China to express their support for open skies agreements and open trade with the Asia Pacific region.