Stone Column

RSS

As our economy very slowly recovers from the recession, and our industry slowly gets back to normal (whatever “normal” means these days), I see the same old patterns falling into place.

In this issue of Stone World, we are featuring three unique Fabricator Case Studies, covering shops in New Jersey, Minnesota and Ohio.

A few months ago, I wrote about a slate producer in the U.K., and the headline described the company philosophy as a “culture of quality.”

Each May, Stone World publishes the year-end import and export statistics for natural stone from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Earlier today, I visited a stone fabrication shop in my home state of New Jersey, and to me, the owner was the prototype of today’s progressive stone fabricator.

OK, I realize that it seems that maybe half of my columns these days are addressing the eventual recovery of our economy, and more specifically, the stone industry.

Every year, as part of the education program at the Marmomacc trade fair in Verona, Italy, the show organizer, Veronafiere, puts together an impressive continuing education program for architects from North America and around the world.

I was talking about the current business situation with a colleague lately, and they came up with a very succinct way of solving the economic crisis, which I have decided to make the headline of this column.

I just finished proofreading a statistical article for TILE Magazine (one of Stone World’s sister publications), and the basic gist of the piece is captured in the headline you see above. 

Like any other business, stone fabricators find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to investing in new technology.