Letter: “Bold Bucolic” Jobsight

I am writing to you in regards to a recent article written about the Middlebury College Library (“Bold Bucolic,” Stone Business, March 2005).
I am very disappointed in that this article has misrepresented the facts about the how the Vermont Danby Marble was supplied and also the capabilities of the quarry, Vermont Quarries Corp. to produce our white Danby Marble in quantities necessary for this project.
The article states that the exterior stone contractor, Trowel Trades Supply, Inc, had no choice but to go to Italy for the material because finding enough marble for the project was a challenge. The article then goes on to say according to Trowel Trades that “the quarry pulls blocks out relatively slowly, and it was a bit late before we got the order, so it would have been tough to have them quarry the blocks and to do the fabrication here”, as stated by Roger Quirion of Trowel Trades.
Not only does Mr. Quirion know very little about our marble production and even less about our capacity, it is even more absurd for Mr. Quirion to make it sound as if he had no choice but to go to Italy for the supply of the specified Imperial Danby Marble. The fact is that Trowel Trades entered into this project without having ever contacted us directly but rather went through one of our good customers, Granite Importers. There was confusion as to what grade of Danby Marble was to be supplied, (as there are eight different grades), because Trowel Trades had no knowledge of the different grades available. They requested Vermont Danby White to Granite Importers but should have been clear in matching the specification which called out Vermont Imperial Danby Marble. It was then we first were contacted by Trowel Trades. After several weeks of getting samples resubmitted along with the appropriate pricing for the Imperial Danby Marble, Trowel Trades had done what happens when the proper due diligence is neglected, committed a price to the owners before securing the correct material and subsequent pricing.
Let me also correct the facts about the production of Vermont Quarries Corp. We quarry roughly 18,000 cubic feet of marble per month. Of that, we send, on average, five percent or less of our production to our parent companies, RED Graniti and F.LLi Mazzucchelli Marmi. (Not most of our production, as indicated in the article.) Within our production facility, we can if necessary produce up to 4,000 ft² of 3cm slabs a day! For the quantities required for Middlebury, Vermont Quarries Corp. could have produced the necessary slabs in less than a week. So for the Trowel Trades to make a claim that the quarry produces material relatively slow is ridiculous.
The statement that Trowel Trades received the order relatively late is also misrepresenting the facts. We started discussions with Trowel Trades in June of 2002. They visited the quarry in July of 2002 and fully understood that Vermont Quarries Corp. could have produced enough material for this project quite easily. The blocks in Italy were cut into slabs sometime in September/October of 2002. By then, Vermont Quarries could have produced enough material for Middlebury Library many times over. The reality is that Trowel Trades over-committed and were in danger of under-delivering because they didn’t check which grade of Danby Marble was approved by the architect as submitted by Vermont Quarries months prior to Trowel Trades ever knowing that this project existed. As we know, Italian companies are quite capable of producing marble very economically and very efficiently. This is why Trowel Trades and Granite Importers chose to go to Italy for a local Vermont marble. Vermont Quarries Corp. does not have any problems in having other companies purchase blocks from our parent companies to supply Vermont Danby Marble but there was a choice. Trowel Trades makes it sound otherwise because they needed to justify why they did not utilize local Vermont companies for this local Vermont project.
In the end, the library turned out beautiful and Vermont Quarries Corp. is very proud to have our Imperial Danby Marble on its’ exterior. Vermont Quarries Corp is a very unique company in that we offer something no other companies can.

Regards,

Todd Robertson
Vermont Quarries Corp.