Building a foundation in stone fabrication
Originally established in 1950 as a cultured marble production company, Grecian Marble & Granite was re-launched four years ago by its new owners as a full-scale stone fabrication shop
“We combined Matt’s years of fabrication experience with my sales and customer service ability to re-launch Grecian Marble & Granite as a full-blown granite and stone fabrication shop,” explained Miller. “Our product lineup is natural stone counters, quartz and Portofino marble. We recently started production of recycled granite products with pavers, tile and fire pits made from the scrap granite we produce.”
The company’s 10,000-square-foot facility houses machinery from Park Industries of St. Cloud, MN. Among the lineup is a Yukon bridge saw, a Pro-edge II edge polisher, a Wizard radial arm workstation and a 1970s model bridge saw with a 6hp motor that still works. “We are big fans of Park Industries,” said Miller. “Their equipment is great and their customer service is even better.”
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Grecian Marble & Granite Oklahoma City, OK |
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Type of Work: Primarily new home construction Technology: A Yukon bridge saw, a Pro-edge II edge polisher, a Wizard radial arm workstation and a 1970s model bridge saw with a 6hp motor — all from Park Industries of St. Cloud, MN; a LT-55 template system from Laser Products Industries of Romeoville, IL; tooling and accessories from Diamax of Atlanta, GA, supplied through GranQuartz and Pacific Shore Stones Product Rate: 11 to 13 jobs a week, averaging 55 to 65 square feet Number of Employees: 17 |
For its tooling and accessories, Grecian Marble & Granite buys Diamax products as much as possible through GranQuartz and Pacific Shore Stones. “We prefer the Diamax brand because they are the best quality products we’ve found,” said Miller. “In addition to being the best quality they are competitively priced with lesser quality products.” Among the Diamax products used by Grecian Marble & Granite are core bits, turbo blades, contour blades, bridge saw blades, cup wheels and wet polishers.
“The newest piece of equipment we have purchased is the LT-55 template system,” said Miller. “It has streamlined our template process and added efficiency to our estimating process. It is a lot easier to log the templates digitally than manually. It has increased my template guy’s capability to effectively measure more projects in a day. It digitizes drawings so they are easier to transfer to the customer for approval, sales for the estimate and production.”
Presently, Grecian Marble & Granite employs 17 workers and runs one shift. It has two in-house installation crews as well as two subcontract crews.
According to Miller, the stone shop primarily works on new home construction projects — averaging between 11 to 13 jobs weekly. Kitchen sizes range from 55 to 65 square feet.
“Our principal market is the Oklahoma City metro area,” he said. “We will service all of Oklahoma and north Texas.
“Our short-term goals for this year are to improve our efficiency by small adjustments,” Miller went on to say. “We believe by adjusting the small daily responsibilities and training employees, we can increase our production capabilities and minimize errors — thus increase our profits. Our second is to increase our sales by 20%.”
Looking to the future, Miller said that the company’s five-year goal is to move its shop to a completely digital production line. “We also want to expand our market share and increase our product line.”
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