There is a new sense of cooperation in the air, with a number of New Zealand wood producers banding together through the Pine Manufacturers Association (PMA) to develop more effective branding initiatives. The glulam industry in New Zealand is made upof 25 licensed manufacturers supplying locally and worldwide. "We all make the same product," says Timberbond Industries director Stu McCallum. "We all take small pieces of timber and stick them together to make bigger pieces of timber." He told the recent PMA conference that the only way to get out of the commodity trap was by collective branding. "Glulam is a generic name worldwide. There is no brand differentiation between New Zealand and Chilean glulam; it is all called glulam. Until now, most manufacturers used all their marketing spend competing against each other, instead of against the real competition, concrete and steel."
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