But, before we start ...
Stone Update sends its best wishes and support to Larry Hood, longtime Slippery Rock Gazette editor, as he recoves from major surgery. He's known by many in the industry, and we're all here to say "Get Well Soon!"
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McDermott Top Shop – A Legacy of Quality and Service
By Peter J. Marcucci
When Ron McDermott opened the doors to his laminate and solid surface shop in 1995, those doors were the entryway into an airplane hangar. It was a mere 1,500 square feet, just big enough to get started, but was not “big enough” for very long. Ron’s son, Travis, was just four years old at the time, and was fascinated by the things his dad was doing. You could say that Travis learned the business from the ground up. As he grew up, Travis would spend time learning the hands-on and ins and outs of the operation while becoming a productive team member, recalled Executive Vice President, Travis McDermott. “After school, I would come to the shop to work or just hang out. I was always involved.”
White Macaubas quartzite kitchen includes a built-in farmhouse sink, a full-height backsplash around the windows, and pop-ups on the large island. McDermott Top Shop used Slabsmith to align the veining in the island. (Photos courtesy McDermott Top Shop)
The company grew rapidly, and by 2005, an opportunity to fabricate countertops from natural stone and quartz had presented itself. As sales increased, so did the shop size, going through several iterations. It continued to get the job done, but not as efficiently as they wanted. During this time, Travis had gone off to college to become a civil engineer, a vocation that would be short-lived before coming back to the company full-time in 2015 to create a father-son team. Stone fabrication had taken precedence, and the McDermott Top Shop was full speed ahead to becoming a premier stone fabricator in the Jefferson, Wis., area. Fast-forward to 2019, four years later. Another addition was necessary to keep up with the demand. However, this time the decision was made to build a new, well thought out, more efficient facility with a production line that could be easily expanded to accommodate future needs, said Travis. “The company’s footprint was at 32,000 square feet between old and new. We did add another 18,000 square feet of slab storage in another hangar, but what we had wasn’t really laid out for good flow, and it didn’t make good sense to stay. So we ultimately decided to construct a new 65,000 square-foot building.” McDermott Top Shop offers a full spectrum of service from sales to installation to a wholesale-only market. The company works exclusively through local builders, home center stores, kitchen and bath dealers, and big box stores such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, and IKEA. These types of sales do have many advantages from a marketing and sales perspective, explained Travis. “We don’t need to put as much effort into sales as a retailer would, but we do pay for it in different aspects. It’s just a different way to choose how to operate. The way we look at it is that everyone is our customers, but our direct customers are the dealers who represent us and our products.
From time to time, we do get people who call us directly, and then we refer them to one of our local partners. From the small mom-and-pop dealers, to the larger, multi-location dealers, to the box stores – these companies and these relationships are what our sales people are focused on.” Travis and company are also the newest members of the Artisan Group, an association of fabrication company owners from specific locations around the country who come together to share knowledge and solve problems. “We are new to the Artisan Group this year. I know a lot of excellent fabricators out there just from the other groups we are in, and the Artisan Group seems like a really great group of people. We’ve learned so much over the years from these relationships. They have helped us grow in what we do.”
Read more in the July 2023 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette.
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Real Stone & Granite: Monuments for Heroes
by Peter J. Marcucci
Beginning in 1936, a government known as the Somoza Regime came into power, and through the decades, began tightening its grip on the people of Nicaragua, slowly eroding their freedoms. Born in Chinandega, Nicaragua, during this turbulent time, Jose Ubilla was raised there until the age of 17, at which time he decided to travel to America, recalled Ubilla. “I had a four-year plan, and came to the United States on January 20, 1978, to attend Arcadia University in Pennsylvania and learn English. It was not for political reasons. I then moved to Baton Rouge, La., in 1979 to attend Louisiana State University to learn more English, and after one semester, moved to Lafayette, Louisiana to work on my degree in agricultural economics.” Ubilla’s four-year plan included going back to Nicaragua after college; however, history and politics had other plans. Led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the Nicaraguan revolution, which had been slowly brewing over the years, went into full-tilt boogie mode in 1979. One outcome of the revolution was that Ubillas’ family – his mother, father and six brothers and sisters – were now exiled, and forced to emigrate. His family ended up scattered in Central America and South Florida. After leaving school in 1983, Ubilla moved to Miami, where he soon learned the stone biz while subcontracting work through his older brother, an established architect, civil engineer, and also a tile contractor, he explained. “Whenever stone work became available, it became my passion, automatically, and how I got my feet wet in the stone business.” In 1987, Ubilla briefly shared a partnership in a company called Interstone. He learned much and the company did well. However, the partnership dissolved after three years, and it was time to move on to bigger things.
Jose Ubilla (Photo courtesy Real Stone and Granite)
In 1993, Ubilla’s dream company Real Stone & Granite had taken shape in a small building in Delray Beach, Fla. Starting out with only a Sawing Systems bridge saw, production grew as new machinery was added, as needed. Within five years, production had surpassed space, and a larger facility was needed. In 1999, the decision was made to pull up roots and move to a 20,000 square-foot facility they had located some 70 miles away in Fort Pierce, Fla. Currently, the company’s two main markets consist of a high-end custom residential and commercial fabrication division, and a second monument division focused on a specialized clientele. Ubilla’s brother, Vice President Alejandro Ubilla, oversees both divisions as well as other parts of the business. In-house designs, estimating and web marketing for both divisions is overseen by Maria Gonzales.
As for market share, President Jose Ubilla recalled, “When we moved here in 1999, the idea was to serve a larger section of Florida. Comfortably, we are within two hours to Orlando, Fort Lauderdale. or Miami, and three hours to the Sarasota and Tampa areas. So we can cover a large portion of the state within a reasonable amount of time. We do quite a bit of local sales, but our area of concentration is a 100-mile radius from here in Fort Pierce.” There’s also a third division that’s that’s been since the early 90s, but up and coming, continued Ubilla. “Real Stone Bahamas Limited is a 33-year-old sister company, operated by Urbano Lopez. It has basically been a showroom with installation capabilities, and will soon be a miniature version of the Fort Pierce fabrication facility.” All in all, both locations average a total of 60 team members. About a year after the big move, Ubilla was offered a proposal by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 566, to build the Florida Vietnam Veteran’s Wall in Veterans Park in Port Saint Lucie. Being primarily a countertop fabricator and not being setup for producing monuments, this project was quite a challenge at the time, recalled Ubilla. “The project encompassed engraving 1,952 names on the wall, Floridian soldiers who gave it their all in Vietnam. It was a major project for us at the time, and something that made me look into the value of freedom, and the American ideology of freedom. It made me look back and think about why I am here. Working for all these veterans and building this monument made me realize the importance of the American dream, and not being a financial dream like most people perceive it. The American dream is an idea and a way of life, and what this country has been throughout history to be what it is.”
Read more in the August 2023 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette.
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The ONE THING to Know When Hiring Your Next Manager
by Ed Young
When hiring key managers for your stone business, stone experience should be the least important of your criteria. Yes, I know that statement is controversial and may make some heads spin, but hear me out. Stop and think about the problems that simply drive you crazy as a fab shop owner: • The install crew forgot to get the sink for the job – or they picked up the wrong sink. • The splashes for the job didn’t get loaded on the A-frame and the install crew left without them. • Salespeople make changes to a job after it has been templated. • Salespeople interfere with the fab and install schedule to prioritize their customers. • Shop personnel continuously don’t wear the proper PPE. • There continue to be unsafe conditions in the shop – hoses all over the floor, no hearing protection, no steel-toed shoes. • Slabs and remnants are hard to locate for fabrication because they just never seem to get tagged properly. This is just a very short list. I’m sure you could easily double or triple it!
Now stop and think about all the ways you have tried to improve these behaviors. You’ve screamed and yelled. You’ve pleaded. You may have offered monetary incentives. You’ve threatened. Maybe you’ve even written out processes for how a task should be done and trained everyone.
But nothing works.
Why is that?
A lot of shop owners want me to help develop processes and procedures thinking that will address the issues above. The problem is you can have the best documentation of the most efficient procedures in the world but, without good management, without strong leadership, those documents are useless.
Just because you tell someone or show someone how to perform a task and sternly dictate that it ‘shall be done’, there is no assurance it will happen. Changing and improving process outcome and people performance is impossible without good management and effective leadership,
I see a LOT of production managers, sales managers, install managers, and others who have gained their position because they were the best saw operator or salesperson, or installer. They were promoted because of their technical skills and not because of their ability to manage people. They typically aren’t good managers.
Good managers set goals – not just daily, weekly, and monthly goals but also hourly goals. They give feedback on progress towards those goals. They help ensure the conditions are favorable for reaching those goals.
Good managers are clear communicators. They realize each person sometimes needs to be communicated with in a different way to be effective – some people need more visual communication, some need more verbal communication, and some need time to consider what they have learned before they can effectively respond. A good manager can adapt to these challenges.
Read more in the July 2023 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette.
Also featured in the August 2023 issue of the Slippery Rock Gazette
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Publisher’s Corner
By Rick Stimac, BB Industries President/CEO
BB Industries has been a top provider of tools and accessories to the stone fabrication industry for almost 30 years. From the beginning, we have always looked for ways to improve our value and partnership with the fabricator. Over the past three decades, this dedication to improving the industry has brought many new inventions, machines, and safety devices to the stone industry marketplace.
Recently, and after many discussions with our customers, we heard that sinks are a pain point for many fabricators. Mind you, we have offered a line of the most popular size stainless steel and ceramic vanity sinks for over 10 years.
Thinking of our customer comments, BBI invested heavily into adding a full line of sinks to our offering. This has allowed our customers to place a single order for their sink needs, along with all of their shop and install supplies. Yes, it was a big investment on our part – but we listen to our customers, appreciate the feedback and comments on our social media channels, LinkedIn, Instagram, and facebook.com/BBIndustriesLLC.USA. Just this year, BBI also added two product centers to help get orders to customers faster.
Our commitment to providing the best pricing and service includes all orders shipping same-day, and allows us to increase our partnership to the industry and help our customers receive the best value possible for their business.
Let us know how we can help you- we are listening.
4100 Appalachian Way Knoxville, TN 37918
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