Daniel Ghionoui entered the granite countertop industry in 1994 with a shop in Detroit, MI. Business was going well until the 2008 recession hit the housing market and Ghionoui decided to move his company, Natural Stone City, to Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, in November 2008. Two years later, Ghionoui moved the business once again, but this time because his business started to grow, largely by word of mouth.
“Our main office with one desk turned into four desks,” said Flav Rusu, purchasing and operations manager for Natural Stone City. “From one bridge saw, we went to two bridge saws and a CNC router. From a handful of A-frames holding customer slabs to over 50 A-frames, stocking over 100 different colors of granite. One thing remained throughout all these transitions: Our industry-unheard-of three to five business day turnaround from customer selections to installed job.”