In particular, Decolores has developed into one of the largest full-line companies, offering a wide range of both basic and exotic natural stone products.

Over the years, the company has continually invested in plant expansion and new technology. “Beginning in 2009, during a time of recession in our principle market of North America, Decolores doubled down on our commitment to the natural stone industry investing more heavily than ever in plant expansion,” explained Gustavo Probst of Decolores. This included the addition of state-of-the-art processing equipment, such as multi-wire diamond saws for processing blocks into raw slabs, and the company also invested in a large-scale automated resin line and the latest generation of polishing equipment from Italy. “In all of our processes, we only use the best consumables — resin, polishing pads, diamond wires, etc. — mostly Italian products such as Tenax and Adria, among others.

“Decolores has undertaken a dramatic expansion over the last three years and is one of the most cutting-edge slab production facilities in Brazil,” Probst continued. “We use our state-of-the-art diamond wire saws and the very latest resin and polishing technologies to process the most challenging and expensive granites and quartzites into slabs of superior quality. We specialize in producing the best results from the most difficult-to-process materials.”

Blocks are processed on two multi-wire saws — one from Pedrini with 64 wires and another with 30 wires. It also operates a double-wire machine for cutting blocks.

Equipment for finishing material includes a fully automatic S.E.I. resin line that produces one slab every two minutes, and two automatic Pedrini polishing machines, each of which is equipped with 20 heads. The facility also includes a bridge saw for cut-to-size projects.

In all, a total of 90 workers are employed by Decolores. The company is currently exporting 100 containers of material per month, and it has the production capacity to double that figure.

Products and marketing

In terms of materials, Decolores works with basic granites, such as Giallo Ornamental, Giallo Santa Cecilia, New Venetian Gold, Portofino Gold and Giallo Napoleone.

It also processes exotic granites and quartzites such as Atacama Black granite, Bronzite quartzite, Cristalo quartzite, Normandy, White Macaubas quartzite and White Pearl quartzite.

Decolores owns the quarry for Bronzite, a super-exotic ferric quartzite, and it has partnerships in several others.

Although the majority of Decolores’ sales are in North America, business in the domestic market of Brazil has increased greatly since 2010.

In North America, the company sells primarily to distributors. “Our customer list includes a large percentage of the largest and most well-known distributors in the U.S. and Canada,” Probst said.