Products

Central Garden & Pet anticipated lower quarterly results, and it got them.

The Walnut Creek, Calif.-based marketer and producer of branded products for the lawn and garden and pet supplies markets reported net sales of $494.1 million in the third quarter ended June 29, down 7% from the same quarter last year.

Net income was $13.7 million, down from $22.7 million in the same quarter last year. 

In a report entitled "Commercial Construction Markets are Helping to Repair U.S. Building Materials,” Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has posited that commercial construction and the slowed rate of spending decline for that sector has helped the overall credit availability for construction projects. 

Standard & Poor's economists are projecting a 14% increase in residential housing in 2011 over 2010, and spending on repairs and remodeling possibly increasing about 5%.

Maumee, Ohio-based Fypon introduced a new “Stone & Timber” collection of decorative products created to accent homes featuring stone, stucco and timber as major design themes. The Stone & Timber product line offers either a stone or woodgrain texture on exposed surfaces.

Technology and the younger generation will transform the retail landscape.