March, 2005 In This Issue: New Products Alcan Tuxedo Market Trends Risk Management by Lacie Thrall Potpourri

Thank you for visiting our web site. We hope the information here will be valuable to you. We anticipate that it will help us move foward with our objective: ìto grow our business on a profitable basis with our manufacturers.

Let us have a show of hands. How many long for the days before the fax, cellular phone, E-mail, and voice mail: A time when you had the alternative to respond less then instantly.

If you consider that you would like to return to that state remember this new era has brought as many positive results as negative.

The emotional price we are paying does not come as much from change as from the rate of change. Listen to the sounds around you.I work to hard, too long. There is too much change to keep up with. We have all heard or repeated this litany.

A very wise independent distributor in the NY market once told me: "Give me an up or down market and I can make things happen, I have trouble when things are stable." If you think about that you realize that only in change can you improve your lot rapidly. It may be tough, but seek to embrace it and develop the opportunities it brings.

Our aim in this section of our web page will be to try to identify trends from which we may all find an advantage. We hope to also have guest writers who we will ask to address raw material trends, supply and demand issues, trends within their specialities, product pricing anticipations, and any subject that may help us position ourselves to take advantage of the future.