84 Lumber Receives Governor's Export Excellence Award.

EIGHTY-FOUR, Pa., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- 84 Lumber Company, one of the nation's largest suppliers of building materials, was one of 10 Pennsylvania businesses receiving the Governor's Export Excellence Award on Tuesday (Oct. 26) as one of the leading exporting companies in Pennsylvania in 1999.

Mark Reginelli, 84 Lumber's Director of World Trade, received the award on behalf of the company at a special ceremony in Hershey, PA. Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Mark S. Schweiker was on hand to present the award on behalf of Gov. Tom Ridge.

"It's our privilege to recognize companies that have the vision, and are willing to take the risk, to put themselves on the cutting edge of global trade," said Ridge in a videotaped address.

84 Lumber established its international sales division in April of 1998, exporting building materials, including complete homes packages, to China for the first time. After recording $300,000 in international sales its first year of existence, sales increased dramatically in 1999 as 84 Lumber topped $1.5 million in exporting revenue by September. With two pending contracts, Reginelli expects total international sales for 1999 to be approximately $2.7 million, a 900% increase over 1998.

"It's a great honor to be recognized by the state of Pennsylvania for our accomplishments in exporting, especially since our international sales division is so new," said 84 Lumber Company President Maggie Hardy Magerko. "We are proud of what we have accomplished thus far, but the really exciting part is that the future looks so bright in the global economy."

"When 84 Lumber first considered getting involved with international sales, we saw great potential, but we also knew that a lot of companies weren't interested in exporting because it takes a long time to establish relationships with foreign countries to get projects started," said Reginelli. "Sometimes it can take two years, but I give our management credit, they were willing to invest the time and energy to give this a try and now the hard work and patience is starting to pay dividends."

84 Lumber currently exports complete home packages and building materials from the Port of Baltimore to nine countries, including: China, Switzerland, Australia, Bulgaria, Korea, Turkey, Japan, Germany and South America. Reginelli feels this award will create many new opportunities abroad.

"This award will help us improve our national and international networking capabilities and attract more business partners abroad," said Reginelli. "There are a lot of government agencies who can aid businesses that want to export. And this award should open new doors for us at international trade conferences and missions like the ones we are attending in Berlin, Germany in February and Shanghai, China in April."

In addition to the significant increase in international sales, 84 Lumber partnered with several Pittsburgh-area organizations and national vendors recently to ship 20 housing units to Turkey, providing relief for victims of this summer's devastating earthquake. Reginelli hopes to duplicate the housing relief efforts in other parts of the world hit by natural disasters.

84 Lumber, founded by Joe Hardy in the town of Eighty-Four, PA in 1956, operates 391 stores in 30 states. For more information, visit the Company online at www.84lumber.com.