Always looking for new materials to sell to its clients, Andrade S/A Mármores e Granitos of Serra, Espírito Santo, Brazil, has added a number of quarry sites to its operation. These acquisitions, along with continual investment in state-of-the-art stoneworking machinery, has allowed Andrade S/A to maintain its position as one of the leading stone producers in Brazil.

The newest acquisition for the company is a quarry site for Imperial Coffee granite, which has a rich brown color. The quarry, which was acquired in late 2006, was established six years ago. Andrade S/A also has a new quarry site for Surreal quartzite, which has waves of blue and green. Additionally, Andrade S/A operates quarry sites that produce Blue Fantasy, Bordeaux, Candeias Dark Green, Gold Brasil, Green Gold, Crystal Gold, Marinace Green, San Benedito Black, Santa Helena and Ubatuba Green. In all, the company quarries 1,500 cubic meters of material each month.

These acquisitions are just the latest in nearly two decades of development for Andrade S/A, which was founded in 1990 by Cèlio and Zelto de Andrade. In 1996, the company began making significant investments in Italian fabrication equipment, including Barsanti gangsaws and Simec slab polishing equipment for producing finished granite slabs. It continues to upgrade its slab production equipment, with the addition of Simec polishing lines as well as automated slab-handling equipment. It also upgraded its machinery for slab production with the addition of new gangsaws. In addition to the four gangsaws located in Vitória, the company also has two gangsaws in the state of Minas Gerais and six in northern Espírito Santo, closer to the quarries.

Currently, only a portion of Andrade’s slab production is resin treated, but that is increasing. “Day by day, our customers are asking for more resin-treated slabs,” explained Cèlio Andrade. When treating slabs, the company uses resin products from Tenax S.p.A. of Italy.

The company also uses Italian stoneworking machinery for its tile production. This includes a Simec blockcutter with 60 cutting discs and a fully automated tile line, also from Simec.

With a total of 330 people working for the company, Andrade’s slab production is nearly 65,000 square feet per month, while tile production is nearly 110,000 square feet per month.

Andrade S/A currently exports 90 to 95% of its production, including 80% to the U.S. market, where the company sells primarily to distributors. It has also begun selling blocks, mostly to the Asian market.

Growth in 2006 was 15%, and 2005’s sales increases were even more impressive, reaching 30% over the previous year. In explaining the growth patterns, Cèlio Andrade said that the market was actually “too hot” a couple of years ago. “We wouldn’t want to maintain that pace of growth,” he said, emphasizing that the company stresses quality as much as volume. “The market is still very strong now,” he added.

In addition to participation at the Vitoria Stone Fair in Brazil, Andrade can be found at trade shows around the world, including Marmomacc in Verona, Italy, and Coverings in the U.S.