Fab Focus XTRA: B.C. Stone
“Typically, they’re the ones who are within a half-hour or 45 minutes from us and have heard about us,” says Collins. “Even then, our retail pricing reflects that direct sale; it’s not the same price that we give to our wholesale clients.”
Ironically, the popularity of natural-stone countertops has grown in the local market to the point where the partners could maintain a sustainable business just serving that area, Collins says, “but the company has grown and we have to look at other areas for our business.”
The Wilmington operation aside, Bair and Collins prospered overall in their business. After buying their first building, they expanded once before building their current 25,000 ft(2) facility shortly after the turn of the century.
“When we moved into this one, we thought that was it,” Collins says. “We figured we’d never outgrow this place; four or five years ago, we realized we were busting at the seams. An expansion at some point is going to be necessary.”
Considering that the shop includes two bridge saws, two waterjets, three CNC machines and two edging machines (including CMS/Brembana equipment), it’s no wonder the facility feels cramped, or that it’s expedient to keep people working three shifts to turn out what can average more than 50 kitchens a week.
“The fabricators primarily do the final handwork,” he explains. “Our primary shift is the daylight shift. Then, we have a second shift that loads the vehicles for the installers for the next day. The third shift starts the next day’s work, or if there’s a job not quite finished for the next day, they finish it up and finish loading the vehicles.”
And, considering the area the company serves, doing installs as quickly and efficiently as possible is critical. B.C. Stone has seven two-man crews, although Collins says that on an average day only six are on the road – but each install crew averages two or three kitchens per day.
Collins adds that the other key component to turning out so many jobs each week – and getting them right – is the company’s template crews. Although someone else is selling the bulk of the jobs, the company always does its own templating.
“We have three crews dedicated to templating, with a fourth floater,” he says. “They’re pretty much on the road all the time. We digitize everything, and we like to have our hands on this part of the process to make sure that if there are any mistakes, they’re our mistakes.”
STAYING LIGHT
Without local people walking in to drive the business, Collins says the heart of the company’s sales is its seven different project managers who are the main interface between the dealer/clients and B.C. Stone.
“We used to call them sales managers, but they do more managing of projects than they do sales,” says Collins. “They have their own clients they work with in-house, and they go visit them regularly. However, if they’re out traveling and see a new place go in, they’ll stop and see if they’re looking for a fabricator and develop a relationship.”