The 25th edition of Cersaie, an international exhibition of ceramic tiles and bathroom furnishings, took place this fall at the Bologna Exhibition Centre in Bologna, Italy. The 2007 rendition set three new records, including the figures for total visitors (91,935), foreign visitors (27,121) and Italian and foreign journalists (632).
For 14 years, Ed and Lynn Strobel have been successfully serving the stone industry by specializing in high-end construction. Their company, Coverall Interiors in Auburn, WA, is now a family-run business that includes their daughter, Katie, in its everyday operations.
It is interesting to look back through the history of impregnators/penetrating sealers and their importance in the marketplace. In the early days of tile and stone installation, sealing tile, grout or natural stone was not an accepted practice. Sealing was looked upon as a nuisance more than an aid. Every possible excuse you can think of was used: "I don't want the liability of sealing," "I have had problems using sealers in the past," "I have to charge extra to use a sealer," "I don't want to come back for the extra day it takes to seal," etc.
Since it first opened in 1989, Amendola Marble and Stone, Inc. of White Plains, NY, has certainly undergone a transformation. Its principals, Sergio and Maria Amendola, initially started the company as a tile showroom, and today it has flourished into a full-scale fabrication shop that produces stone and engineered quartz products for high-end residential projects as well as large commercial jobs. Moreover, the Amendolas further expanded their business by establishing a subsidiary company, Custom Counters, Inc. in Waterbury, CT, in 2004.
Forever Granite & Marble, LLC, a leading supplier of natural stone products for residential applications in the Tacoma, WA, region, has been experiencing meteoric sales growth in recent years thanks to aggressive marketing, competitively priced high-quality products and automated processes that enable production to keep up with demand.
For many stone fabricators, 2007 was a year like none other -- and not in a positive way. After solid growth for nearly a decade, the stone fabrication sector faced a host of challenges last year. When you consider that nearly half of the fabricators in the U.S. have been in business for less than 10 years, this means that many companies are experiencing their first downturn ever. Or at the very least, it was the first time that growth curtailed. Despite all of this, a recent Stone World survey of fabricators across the country revealed an optimistic mood among respondents. In general, fabricators have a fairly positive outlook for 2008, and they are predicting significant growth in the industry over the next five to 10 years.
Since its beginnings in 1987, CaesarStone Quartz Surfaces has continued to expand and evolve. Today, with over 200 employees in the U.S. and 600 worldwide, the Israeli company has more than doubled its slab production capacity within the last three years. It has a national distribution system in the U.S. with over 20 distributors, and it owns six CaesarStone branches nationwide, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Washington, DC, New York and Miami.
Standing in the heart of the Village of Tinley Park in Illinois is an Arts and Crafts style train station with limestone cladding and a slate roof, which has become the center of attraction in the community. In particular, the station's three-story clock tower with an observation deck contributes to the overall character of the design. The train station was the first step in a master plan targeted at resurfacing the "Old World charm" of the village.
StonExpo 2007 was held from October 18 to 20 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV, and although attendance was slightly down from last year, exhibitors reported quality visitors, according to Hanley Wood, the show’s organizer. The show floor was filled with a broad range of exhibits of machinery, tools and accessories, stone displays and stone installation and maintenance products. In addition to the exhibition itself, the event also included an educational program, which offered a number of seminars related to issues specifically relevant to the stone industry.
In an industry first, the Marble Institute of America (MIA) has entered into a formal alliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Among several initiatives being taken by the two organizations is a series of seminars for stone fabricators. These one-day sessions educate stoneworking professionals on OSHA standards, and they are specifically geared towards the stone industry. In addition to classroom instruction, a shop “walk-through” educates participants on specific hazards within a stoneworking facility that can be cited by OSHA. Earlier this year, Stone World documented one of these OSHA/MIA presentations, which took place at the facilities of Alpha Professional Tools in Oakland, NJ.
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