In the late '90s, Fernandez began to seriously research the granite business - its demand, applications, availability, characteristics, strengths, profitability, machinability and so on. The investigation piqued his interest and convinced him that expanding into granite was a good business decision. He began a search for a new, larger facility that would provide enough space to handle the existing Corian workload, plus new granite orders. Fernandez purchased a 2.5-acre parcel of land with 25,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space in the shadows of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
Fernandez then began researching stone-processing machinery that would accurately and reliably cut granite to exact specifications and tight tolerances. Rather than using hand tools and manual machines, he reasoned that sophisticated, automated equipment would give him a competitive advantage. He gathered information from several major stone machinery builders, visited Web sites, traveled to see various machines in operation and talked directly to as many stone machinery salesmen and senior executives as he could. He wanted to select one manufacturer that could provide all the different machinery, training and service.