StoneDimensions

Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Kostas Kioleidis from K & K Marble Importers in Bethpage, NY.
to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: Kostas, could you tell us a little bit about your company?

A: Michelangelo was born from an idea and a belief: "There must be a better way to run our business."
Michelangelo is the creation of Nicola Maganuco, former CEO of Stone Capital, a stone yard in Long Island NY, and I. Michelangelo was developed to simplify and expedite our work-flow; to boost our productivity; to help our clients more effectively, engage them in the design process; to close more deals faster; to improve communication channels within our teams and to track every aspect of our business from anywhere, anytime.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Nancy Carter from Pacific Shore Stones in Tulsa, Oklahoma to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: What sector of the stone industry is Pacific Shore involved in?

A: Primarily slabs, but we also do tools in some of our locations. We do not do tiles or hardware or other ancillary products. We consider ourselves a specialty shop and we believe we bring more value to our customers doing one thing right (slabs) as opposed to trying to offer different product categories. Importing, warehousing and distributing slabs is what we do best and our entire strategy is based on that.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Gary Wacknov of Creative Edge Master Shop to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: Can you please tell us a little bit about your company and its history?

A: Aalto Design and Creative Edge has 22 years of experience in design and fabrication of inlaid flooring products. Our strength and success results in the syngery created by two sister companies, which bring their own specialty: Aalto Design which creates our custom product designs and Creative Edge which specializes in product fabrication.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome John Freitag of Elite Stone and Tile Care and The Stone and Tile School to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: How long have you been involved in the stone industry?

A: I have been involved in the stone industry since 1989. I started out selling marble restoration franchises. In 1991, I began operating my own franchise. In October 2003, I went to work with the franchisor and later became President of that company.
In January 2009, I opened my own restoration service company, Elite Stone and Tile Care, servicing the Central Florida market, and at the same time opened The Stone and Tile School. The Stone and Tile School teaches stone restoration, maintenance, tile and grout cleaning, color sealing and sales and marketing classes. The school offers classes every month with a limit of no more then 4 students per class. Each student has their own set of equipment and tools to use. The classes are 85% hands on training.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Patrick Perus of Polycor, Inc. in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: Patrick, you are the first quarrier we have interviewed in the Cutting Edge, can you tell us what is going on in the quarrying side of the stone business?

A: The recent economic crisis has not been kind to our Industry, but 2012 is definitely a year of rebound for quarries in North America. Architects and consumers seem to like more and more the idea of using local products. We are cautiously optimist on economic prospects, and keep loving our job.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Darren Takashima of Pohaku Fabrication, Inc. in Lihue, HI to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: What is your role with Pohaku?

A: General Manager

Q: Can you give us an overview of your experience with the company and a little history of the company?

A: I have been with Pohaku Fabrication since the shop doors first opened in 2005. I started as a fabricator and worked my way up to my current management position. The owners were doing commercial stone and tile work in Hawaii and as demand for custom and residential work increased, the need for a shop became apparent. There were very few businesses providing and making it easy to get a granite counter. Pohaku Fabrication was created to meet that demand and we strive to produce quality products and professional service to our small island community. So your readers understand, the name “Pohaku” means stone in the Hawaiian language.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Heidi Huber of SMG Stone Co. in Sun Valley, CA to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: What is your role at SMG?

A: Officially, my job description is “Business Development and Marketing”. If you read between the lines, of course, that means SALES. My job is to present my company in the best light to potential and existing customers in hopes of them giving us their business. I know it takes a certain type of personality to be able to do my job, and I am one of the lucky minority who thrives on the challenges it presents. Luckily, I believe in the product and service I sell.

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It has often been said, if figuratively, that in America the streets are paved with gold; it signifies the opportunities for creative entrepreneurship upon which the country was founded. In Portugal, by contrast, the streets are paved, quite literally, with marble; it’s the simple confluence of geography and geology. Thus, it was the childhood memories of glistening marble in Europe—adorning and defining the most lavish hotels and palaces—that formed the compass of destiny for Leon Zanger, who, as an adult in America, would chart a dramatic new course for design with the timeless materials of stone and ceramic tile. It is this vision of modern sophistication that would be the lifeblood of the Walker Zanger company he founded sixty years ago.

The son of a feather merchant, Leon Zanger was born in Belgium in the late 1920s, but world events would conspire to bring him to the New World. Perceiving the threat posed by Germany in 1940, Leon’s father orchestrated a family exodus from Europe, which is how Leon Zanger, at age 12, ended up in then-neutral Portugal, where he saw workers paving the streets with marble. It was an arresting sight for the youth who’d long associated the glimmer of marble with the aura of wealth. When he told his mother that Portugal must surely be rich beyond measure, she explained to him that it wasn’t; it was just that marble was inexpensive and plentiful there. It was a defining moment. It was a story that Leon never forgot. It was a spark that would smolder for years, fated as it was to change the world.

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Evan Kruger of SolidTops in Easton, MD to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: What is your role at SolidTops?

A: President and CEO

Q: How long have you been with SolidTops?

A: Since writing the name SolidTops on a napkin 16 years ago.

Q: Have you always had the same position or have you held different roles at SolidTops?

A: Originally, SolidTops was a one man shop. At that point, I held all the roles!

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Each month, the MIA profiles an employee from one of our member companies. This month, we welcome Evan Cohen of Quality Marble & Granite in Ontario, CA to the Cutting Edge profile page.

Q: What is your role at Quality Marble & Granite?

A: My role at Quality Marble & Granite...well, yard worker, janitor, salesman, receptionist, bookkeeper, manager, visionary or anything else it takes to operate the day to day business. My formal title, however, is president.

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