Hi all - I want to give a heads up to all of you who use Romark woodgrain material.

I attempted to buy some 7-072 the other day to restock for a job we do signage for on a regular basis. I was very surprised when I was told by my distributors that all the woodgrains from Romark have been discontinued and there are four new woodgrain shades.

This really plays havoc with my regular clients who have been ordering signage or deskplates from us for many years. We use the same shade each time so there is consistency. Now two signs next to each other will have to be different.

If I received any prior warning of this, it sure didn't reach my desk. I sure wish some warning would come out so we could plan around discontinued items and order enough stock to use for specific clients and make color choices for new clients before getting locked into a color that won't be there next week.

I know we can't all be notified of every discontinued part, but a fax out once a month from distributors letting us know of upcoming discontinuations would sure be nice.

Just wanted to warn others who haven't noticed this change in Romark materials.

Cindy

Cindy,

My name is Phil Noakes, I am the National Sales Manager for Rowmark. I am sorry to read about your situation, and I wish I had a solution for you.

Unfortunately we changed woodgrains because we lost a foil vendor.

I will offer any help I can. I will be happy to talk to our distributors and see if any of them have the pattern left you want. I will also be happy to send you samples of the new woodgrains.

Please feel free to call me at 1-800-243-3339, and let me try to help you.

Thank you for you business.

Phil

Cindy
I know it's not much help but I did get notice of this from my distributor.
I can check to see if we have any of the products your looking for if we do I could ship it to you. (But I have a feeling we may not have much, if any)

Phil Nokes is a great guy and he is always willing to help in any way he
can. Take him up on his offer. You might find one close to the old one & who
knows the customer might find one they like better. We change a large
bank over when this happened to us - they ended up redoing all their old
ones for a new look.

I wish all makers of products had a guy like Phil working for them. It's guys like Phil why I use ROWMARK for all of my plastics.

A J Palik
Photon Graphics

Phil - thank you so much for letting me know the reason behind the change. I use a lot of Romark material, and love the new colors and styles you are coming out with, but there are those clients who just stick with the same thing for years and our job is to provide that sameness in product. At least now I have an explanation for this particular client and future issues on the woodgrain that come up. And I can share that with my sales staff so they know what is going on.

I would like at least a sheet of 7-072 if anyone has it out there to finish up this one office I am working on. I had to do one sign in the 7-102 as the closest match, but I would like to redo that sign, have enough for any little changes in the future and let them know the material has been discontinued - kind of wean them off it nicely before I spring change on them.

My distributor (Western Trophy & Sign) sent me a paper color chart of the new woodgrains, but I don't have a card with actual color chips of the new colors. If you could send me one of those, that would be better for matching when we need to change over each client. I can go through files ahead of time and match up what we will be using in the future. I couldn't really tell from the paper the difference - they all looked pretty much the same except for the darkest one.

Thanks again Phil for letting me know the reasons. And it sounds like at least one distributor is sending out discontinued notices. Wish they would all do that. If mine did, I sure didn't see it, but they usually come to my desk and I take it and immediately get the catalog and mark the item out so the sales staff doesn't sell that product.

Cindy

Phil,

Thank you for addressing Cindy's situation.

As long as I've been participating in online forums, a common complaint of industry suppliers has been the "misinformation" generated by the forums.

I've always felt the andidote for misinformation, is an infusion of facts.

Thank you for providing the facts behind the changes in the Rowmark line.

I'll add Rowmark to my unofficial list of industry suppliers who "get it." :-)

Also, thank you for sending samples of the Rowmark "Granites." The Charcoal/Gold looks like it may be a viable substitute for the Midnight/Gray, I was using in an ongoing awards program.

The granite pattern is very believeable, and the fact the surface comes in either matte or glossy, makes the material very versatile.

David "The Stunt Engraver" Lavaneri
DGL Engraving
Port Hueneme, CA

Cindy,

First I want to thank everyone for the kind words. I am only one of about 100 committed Rowmark employees that wants all engravers using our products.

Cindy, if you will email me at pnoakes@rowmark.com I will send you a new swatch page and samples of the new woodgrains. I need your address.

Thank you.

Phil

Hi Gang,

Isn't it great to have a company that cares? I am continually amazed at this industry, which I'm sure has a "dark" side, ( Luke I am your father)....it is just so cool to see so much giving sharing and helping, not only from forum members but people like Phil, and so many others in the industry.