"We have seen that the U.S. is turning to the service industry over manufacturing, with many of the manufacturing companies going offshore and overseas," said Barone. "I had built homes, and I learned about granite from that." While Barone specializes in quality control and operations, Bates has a background in purchasing and global procurement, a role that has taken him around the world on sourcing trips.

"The economy was right [to enter the stone industry], with the interest rates," Barone said, adding that he conducted a market study with data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census as well as the national homebuilding association. "We found a strong West Coast market, a strong Florida market and a strong Washington/Baltimore market," he said. "The Northeast was also saturated with [stone fabricators]."