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Starting in a barn in Buckingham, FL, Solid Surface Tops of Southwest Florida, Inc. was formed and incorporated in April 2002. The company, founded by Jack and Glenda Balentine, the company president and corporate secretary, respectively, began by only fabricating solid surface materials exclusively.

“After about six months, we moved to a 1,250-square-foot shop on Metro Parkway in Fort Myers, FL,” said Glenda Balentine. “We template, fabricate and install solid surface countertops, most generally Corian, to builders, both new construction and remodeling, and some retail. We soon outgrew that small shop and moved a few blocks away to a 5,000-square-foot space on Idlewild Street.”

Since its beginnings in 2001, Discover Marble & Granite has slowly grown, but since the 2008 recession, it has seen a huge gain due to two reasons. In July 2003, Victor DeOliveira, company president, placed the company’s first order of quartz from Cambria and invested substantially into it. With business picking up, DeOliveira then made the decision to purchase a line-up of state-of-the-art fabrication equipment to establish an efficient production process.

“By 2006, we were moving a lot of material,” said DeOliveira. “We were one of the largest wholesalers of Cambria in the country. It took about two and a half years to get the ball rolling, but since then, it has really taken off for us. We are now known in the industry as a quartz supplier because of that commitment.”