16 Aug
Laser Products Industries (LPI) has made the 2018 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States for the second-consecutive year. LPI has experienced nearly 70% sales...
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Magazines
12 Mar
[gallery columns="5" link="file" ids="4255,4253,4254,4252,4256"] Creative Countertops of Poulsbo, WA, runs a small shop with a few pieces of equipment, but with an efficient workflow in place the company is a top...
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08 Feb
[gallery columns="5" ids="4228,4225,4222,4223,4227,4229,4224,4226"] Gecko Solid Surface Solutions Rises from the Bottom to the Top: Business major turned stone fabricator, Augie Chavez, began his own fabrication business after moving to Texas more...
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06 Mar
Rebuilding a stone business: After a fire destroyed Sharon Re’s fabrication shop, she rebuilt it, sold it and eventually opened a new operation in the same building
Beginning in their early twenties, Sharon and Chuck Re started a tile business out of their apartment. While doing tile work for five years, customers would often ask them if they could do a vanity top for them. “We would have to go to a stone shop and have a vanity made,” said Sharon Re. “At the same time, we were getting sick of doing tile work. We decided to go to Cumar Marble and Granite and told them we knew how to template and install. I don’t know if we really did or not, but he hired us and for the next two years taught us everything we know today. That’s where we learned the value of hard work, learning from the best was the turning point for us and we will be forever grateful to Ivo [Cubi] for that.”
07 Feb
Granite City of Eagle River, AK, was founded 11 years ago by current president, Matt Hickey, and vice president/general manager, Barry Anderson. They remain the owners today, along with treasurer, Melissa Hickey. Matt Hickey and Anderson had been working in the construction field for 40 years. They partnered to start the business because they saw a need for a granite fabrication and installation shop in the area.
The company operates a 10,000-square-foot facility, which was remodeled entirely to fit their needs. They manufacture a variety of brands of quartz, as well as natural granite, which is typically used for countertops. They aim to cut and fabricate four to six slabs in an eight-hour shift.
16 Jan
Growing Through Diversification, Marjan Stoen of Spring Valley, CA, continually researches, strategizes and invests in new technology, people and market trends. While living in Bagdad, Iraq, Hikmet Pauls owned a factory...
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12 Jan
Software that helps run our technology is all around us. It improves our lives in a variety of ways — from the cell phones we carry in our pocket to the navigation systems in our cars. Technology makes our lives easier and more efficient. And relating to stone fabrication, as technology continues to evolve, the software in CNC machines continues to get better and assist fabricators. The stone industry may have started behind the technological curve, but it’s quickly catching up. The days of fabricators having to move every slab in their yard to show customers what that specific slab looks like, may be a thing of the past.
Digital slabs are becoming increasingly popular and the future for them looks promising. Digital slabs shouldn’t be thought of as a simple photo of a slab. It’s an accurate copy of real life. According to Bill Elliott of Northwood Designs, Inc. in Antwerp, NY, developer of Slabsmith, digital slabs allow the entire properties of a slab to be shown to a fabricator. “With the digital version of the slab, I know the exact dimensions; the color is accurate, and the parts that will fit in the slab or remnant are known making it more than just a photo of the slab,” said Elliott. “Then everything flows downhill from that. We can then manage inventories, manage remnants in a new way, do layouts in new ways. We know not only how many square feet are in a slab, but what the largest area we can use in it and what the largest rectangle we can make in that slab is. That also means we know exactly what is in stock if we need to meet certain needs. The possibilities are endless when you have an accurate digital version of a slab.”
09 Jan
Whether your shop is big or small, high volume or custom, if you’re still on the fence about hard templates versus digital templating, this story is for you. The tried and...
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15 Sep
While Eric Tryon, owner of Premier Surfaces in Atlanta, GA, might have left the corporate world to pursue his own endeavors in the stone industry, he held on to the...
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04 Aug
Established in 1904, Hatton Granite Company, is North Dakota’s oldest monument business. Starting 15 years after North Dakota gained statehood, the family business originally created monuments from hand and chisel....
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