Late last year, LIXIL made headlines when it announced the acquisition of Basco, a U.S.-based shower door manufacturing company. The acquisition represents an important step in LIXIL’s growth strategy in the Americas region, the company said. Recently at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, Plumbing & Mechanical Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke had a chance to sit down with Trey Northrup, leader of LIXIL Americas, to discuss the company’s outlook following the acquisition, the current labor shortage, and the pitfalls of sanitation access and LIXIL’s LPP program, a global initiative aimed at tackling America’s sanitation challenges through public and private sector partnerships.

The plumbing supply industry and our showrooms, as well as many re-distribution businesses, are run ERP systems that are based on the IBM AS/400 or DOS. Both originated in the 1980s. We are an industry that looks to shave pennies to scale and limit our operational invest. We live by “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and so we have gone for a millennia. But, the possibility of having a knowledgable consultant in our pocket might just change the way we employ computers in all facets of business.

Ferguson commissioned a consumer survey to learn about current preferences in home renovation and updates, including overall design aesthetics and kitchen, bathroom lighting and laundry products. The report is based on responses from over 1,099 consumers across the United States and provides valuable insights into what people are looking for when it comes to renovating their homes.

Infinity Drain introduced a new Universal Clamping Ring for use with 4”x4” center drains. The durable ABS Universal Clamping Ring can be installed with the Schluter®-KERDI bonding flange to keep the shower system waterproof warranty intact. 

The U.S. is currently experiencing the largest nursing staff shortage in history with no end in sight. Affecting health care facilities, nursing homes and assisted living facilities alike, lack of resources, ongoing patient care challenges, health and sanitation concerns along with simply being overworked, are all factors fueling this nursing shortage.

With distributors now offering same and next-day delivery, online ordering and more value-add services than ever before, it’s sometimes hard to picture the humble beginnings many independent distribution businesses started from. For Craig Norlin, co-owner of Wautoma, Wisconsin-based Mid-State Supply, it’s not difficult to recall at all; he remembers his father — Austin Norlin — delivering product out of the family’s station wagon with a four-wheel farm wagon towing behind in the 1960s.

In the 1980s, homeowners, builders and designers would walk into these new-fangled decorative plumbing showrooms and be wowed by all the sparkle and style. And as pretty as it all looked, these design leaders had no idea exactly what they were looking at. Sure, they saw fancy faucets but they had no idea how to layout, buy and install a “decorative bathroom”. Prior to decorative showrooms all that was only handled by the plumber. Who was going to help them navigate this new world.

In 2022 more the 4 million people left their jobs each month in the U.S. This ongoing mass exodus was coined “The Great Resignation” in 2021 by Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at University College of London. The Great Resignation was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the way it changed how people think about how, when, where and why they go to work. Klotz recently told CNBC Make It that he expects quitting and company turnover to slow down in 2023 — hopefully good news for businesses nationwide struggling to staff their companies.

The seats were surrounded by more than 27,000 blue flags on the National Lawn, each symbolizing a projected case of colorectal cancer in someone under age 50 by the year 2030. 

According to a recent Healthy Handwashing Survey, only 25% of parents actually believe their children always wash up when they tell them to do so.