Content about Geography of California

Williams-Sonoma, the upscale purveyor of housewares, believes its multichannel strategy is paying off with sales and earnings. 

Fourth-quarter sales increased 6.1% to $1.268 billion, compared with $1.195 billion in the same quarter last year.

Net income of $122.6 million for the quarter was up 8.1% from $113.4 million.

An Ace Hardware outside Redding, Calif., is reopening after a fire caused by a child playing with a lighter damaged the store, according to an article in the Record Searchlight.

Ace Hardware Express store in Shasta Lake, Calif., suffered fire, water and smoke damage from a Sept. 28 fire that destroyed an adjoining apartment. The fire was caused by a four-year-old boy playing with a lighter, the newspaper reported.

San Jose, Calif.-based Orchard Supply Hardware chain opened a 60,000-sq.-ft. store in a former Mervyns location, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal. 

The official opening was Saturday. The store is a relocation of a previous store located in nearby San Jose. It will feature a new format unveiled two years ago in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Orchard, the California home improvement chain formerly known as Orchard Supply Hardware or OSH, is opening a new store in South San Jose on Sept. 17. The new unit will be the company’s 89th location. 

San Jose, Calif.-based Orchard Supply Hardware tapped Vertis Communications to supply marketing services in a new three-year deal.

Under the agreement, which extends a 15-year relationship between the two companies, Vertis will manage Orchard Supply Hardware's advertising inserts program from its local Sacramento facility.

Orchard Supply Hardware is among Vertis' growing portfolio of home improvement retailers including Lowe's, Ace Hardware and Menards.

Winona, Minn.-based Fastenal intends to expand its construction and industrial supply business by opening more locations and adding vending machines, according to an article in the Sacramento Business Journal. 

The California Redwood Co. completed the acquisition of the assets of Siskiyou Lumber Products, a California-based company specializing in remanufacturing and wholesale lumber distribution.

Siskiyou's Woodland, Calif., operations and its Ukiah, Calif., fence plant will now operate as part of The California Redwood Co., distributing redwood lumber products, Douglas fir lumber and treated lumber.

3M's Cubitron II abrasives technology platform has won the TechAmerica Foundation's American Technology Award in the manufacturing category at the Foundation's annual awards dinner held in Washington, D.C.

The Foundation's awards -- also known as "Termans" in honor of Frederick Terman, the late Stanford University engineering professor who is widely regarded as the father of Silicon Valley -- are presented annually to signify American industry's best technological achievements in various categories.

A former Blockbuster video store in Santa Cruz, Calif. will reopen as Santa Cruz Hardware this coming July, according to an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.  

Ace dealer Rodney Hoffer, owner of Aptos Hardware and Westside Hardware, got his start in the home-improvement business by working at Santa Cruz Hardware, originally founded in 1883. Hoffer bought the business in 1986, relocated it after an earthquake damaged the store, and later closed it, due in part to a lack of parking. 

The Mill Yard, a Northern California lumberyard, was able to relocate to a better site with the help of its local municipality, according to an article in the Eureka Times Standard. 

A residential builder based in Southern California has gone on a buying spree in California, closing 13 land deals that represent 1,300 housing units, according to an article in the San Diego Union. 

City Ventures, which is based in Santa Ana, Calif., told the newspaper that the latest acquisitions are part of an 18-month plan to strengthen the company's presence in "California's rapidly recovering housing economy." 

According to an article in the Monterey County (Calif.) Herald, the Ace Hardware store on Main Street in Salinas was robbed at gunpoint last week.

The robbers escaped in a dark-colored Honda Accord with an undetermined amount of cash, according to the report.