Mark Sorak, General Manager of Store Operations has left Binder’s in Atlanta and is looking to join another growing company in the industry. Mark has also worked at Utrecht and Pearl. Contact Mark at msorak@yahoo.com or 404-219-2873.
Tonya Hill has opened a consulting/marketing business called McGinn Hill Consultants specializing in sales training and management, event marketing and market strategy. She brings 20 years of experience in the art and craft industry. Tonya’s phone is 704-224-7311 and her email address is tonya@mhconsultants.net
Sign of the Times Dept: Susan Kocsis (Search Press) informs us that Craftrends Magazine will cease publication effective immediately. Craftrends and CNA were the two trade publications for the entire general craft industry. CNA stopped publishing last year.
The LA Times reported today (July 16, 2008) that increasing cost of plastic ingredients is forcing Newell Rubbermaid Inc. owner of Sharpie and Prismacolor to lay off workers, scrap some of its basic home and office products and raise prices on other items by as much as 22%. 
Our fearless Sanford rep, Dan Canny adds these details, “Newell Rubbermaid’s Board of Directors Has mandated that NR exit approximately $500MM in unprofitable, resin based products across the entire portfolio of brands. This will affect Sanford’s Office Organization business. We expect to rationalize many SKUs from that particular line. As you know, those are not products that were prevalent in the Fine Art business. We expect to increase prices in October on our Office Organization line and other resin intensive product lines by a significant but undetermined percentage. The exact pricing for the affected items has not been finalized as of this morning. Again, given the nature of these products there is no significant impact on our Fine Art business.”
National office products wholesaler SP Richards has acquired Los Angeles-based PPI Wholesale.
The Loft of Athens, GA has moved to a new and larger location in the same town.