Seeing opportunity in China for brands such as Irwin, Dymo and Lenox, Newell Rubbermaid pushes what it calls a "Growth Game Plan." 

Newell Rubbermaid announced the expansion of its office in Shanghai as the company continues to drive its Growth Game Plan. The expanded Shanghai office currently houses nearly 200 employees, with additional capacity for future growth. 

Lowe’s has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to implement Microsoft Office 365 across more than 1,745 stores, 200,000 employees and its corporate offices in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Office 365 will help the home improvement retailer improve customer service by providing collaboration tools to increase communication among its stores and employees. The technology will be available for Lowe's employees soon and will help customers tap into the collective expertise of Lowe’s work force.

Millwork Products LLC, a Paducah, Ky.-based firm, has opened a new location in Wilkesboro, N.C. and hired most of the former workers of a closed Jeld-Wen facility, according to an article in the Winston-Salem Journal. 

A True Value store in Walnut, Calif., a suburb of eastern Los Angeles, has begun its liquidation sale and will close within the next 90 days, according to an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Walnut True Value Hardware has been operated by Stuart Tielens, a 64-year-old businessman who eventually succumbed to his customers’ lack of spending from the poor economy and competition from a Home Depot that moved in two years ago.

According to an article in the Wichita Business Journal, Worthington Industries has no plans for workforce reductions in its new Maize, Kan., plant. 

Columbus, Ohio-based Worthington took over the Maize plant, where pressure cylinders are made, from Coleman Co. According to the newspaper, Worthington bought the plant for $23 million. It has about 70 employees.

One lumber executive was from the Washington, D.C.-area. Another was based in San Marcos, Texas. One ran six units, the other 83, but they both share a common award -- the Home Channel News Pro Dealer of the Year award.

While no product category is absolutely recession-proof, there are a few in the home channel that come close. Paint will always sell, and weather permitting, lawn and garden is a safe bet.

Add pet products to the list.

In a little less than two months, Gaithersburg, Md.-based TW Perry CEO Michael Cassidy will be called to a podium at the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio, Texas, during the 2011 ProDealer Industry Summit, an event hosted jointly by the National Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association (NLBMDA) and Home Channel News.


Ken White arrived at Handy Hardware in May with a clear-cut mandate and straightforward goals. Specifically, get Handy’s information technology program back on track, and put the company on path for growth.

Georgia-Pacific has announced it is in the final construction phase of a nearly complete oriented strand board (OSB) facility in Clarendon, S.C. The mill was part of the acquisition last May from Grant Forest Products that also included an operating plant at Allendale, S.C., and another operating plant at Englehart, Ontario. The acquisition totaled approximately $400 million.

In the 1980s, when Lowe’s decided to change from a chain of southeastern contractor yards to a nationwide big-box retailer, the company knew it wouldn’t happen overnight. But a steady vision, stable leadership and good relations with Wall Street made the goal a reality. Today, the North Carolina-based company has more than 1,725 warehouse-sized stores in all 50 states plus Canada and Mexico. 

Now it’s time for another change.