A few weeks ago, I was discussing the prosperity of the stone industry with someone from outside the trade. I talked about how the use of stone has continued to rise despite all of the uncertain economic times and international turmoil over the past couple of years. In my enthusiasm, I referred to the U.S. stone industry as “recession-proof,†a title that my colleague found highly questionable. And despite my best efforts to convince him that the stone industry has continually rode against all economic trends, he remained largely skeptical.
Some of these arguments came to mind as I reviewed the results of Stone World's market research study, which gauges the past success and future expectations of stone fabricators across the U.S. Once again, the news was overwhelmingly positive. Looking at the coming year, 81.0% of respondents expected the stone market to increase in 2004. Virtually all of the other respondents (18.2%) felt that business would hold steady this year, and a very small portion (0.7%) predicted a decline.