K.G. Stevens Inc., New Berlin, Wis.

   It’s a company that’s invested heavily in continuous production, allowing for accurate fabrication on a volume basis. And that’s just the ticket for K.G. Stevens’ strategy of servicing and supplying wholesalers.
   The wholesale piece of the pie keeps owner Steve Kobliska and his staff of 50+ associates in front of those who build the kitchens and buildings for commercial and residential clientele. “We work as commercial, residential and wholesale fabricators,” says Kobliska. “We sell to builders, kitchen and bath stores, and fixture companies. We also do a lot of kitchen work, but we’re not the ones calling on or selling to the homeowner.”
   For nearly a dozen years, Kobliska’s been building the K.G. Stevens name and brand, and it’s a business he’s literally been at since he was a child. When most kids were delivering newspapers or working the local hamburger joint, Kobliska found revenue with a broom and within a surface shop.
   “We’ve been here 11 years,” he says. “I got into the business sweeping floors in a cabinet and countertop shop when I was just 16 years old – when I was in high school and then into college.”
   Kobliska eventually moved to work in other industries. However, countertops came calling.
   “Eleven years ago, I was working in an unrelated field, but then a former boss had a solid-surface shop he wanted to sell, since he was moving to Florida,” he adds. “He had a couple of contracts already, so I hired another person. There were just the two of us; I took the business and incorporated under K.G. Stevens. We’ve been here ever since, growing and increasing our client base.”
   K.G. Stevens’ operation grew with the business demand as well, including two moves within New Berlin (with the last relocation to a 40,000 ft² building). More than a dozen employees work at keeping business and product flowing, including a sales force of three and a half-dozen workers in administration. And then there’s the shop side of the business.
   “We keep a total of 54 to 55 people employed and our shop is divided into a granite and quartz side and a solid-surface side,” Kobliska says. “We’ve got an installation manager and four installation crews that work within our company. Solid-surface is on the continuous production line, and that’s a process we’re striving to get to on to the hard surface line.”
   Those who might figure that continuous production means compromise in final product need to think again, according to Kobliska. The K.G. Stevens crew’s continuous production system is the Löffler line, a system that fits well into what Kobliska wants to produce. “We got the Löffler system, specifically their CPS line, which automates our granite fabrication,” says Kobliska.
   “What that means to me is that the line is continually operating; all the machines are continually producing something. It’s a very automated system. On the front end, we do programming for all of the machines, and then the slabs of granite or quartz flows through the machine. When they come off the system, they’re done.
   “We have more efficiency now with automating all steps of our process,” he adds. “And I don’t see compromise on anything, on any facet of our process or our product.”
   Yet even a satisfying continuous production system can call for hand-tooled final touches.
   “Even within our continuous-production line,” says Kobliska, “we have customers who insist on a hand-finished edge. The only difference is that we don’t polish on machines; we profile on machines and then hand-polish. That customer’s countertops still fit within our production line; we just do one more step for them.”
   It wasn’t by any accident that Kobliska decided upon Löffler; Kobliska says that communication and ease-of-service settled the company upon the Löffler set-up.
   “It seemed that Löffler was a company that had a leading-edge for machines that communicated with one another to make a more-automated system. A lot of companies have automated machines but not communications.
   “And, (St. Paul, Minn.-based distributor) Fabricators Choice offers great service and speaks our language. They’ve been a good buffer, versus, for example, buying from someone overseas, which would be a struggle. Löffler was a good fit for us.”
   That Löffler system fits within a 16,000 ft² shop, including a Löffler bridge saw, another programmable bridge saw, the Löffler KSL edge processing machine, a two-sided CNC, and a crane/conveyor system for moving parts between machines. And, there’s also a Flow waterjet.
   “This is the wave of the future,” he says. “Hand drawing, etc. does have a place at the end of the production line, but I can’t imagine fabricating products by hand. It’s an old way of doing it, and it’s not the most-efficient way.
   “As with most companies, we’re trying to lower costs so we can compete. But with our continuous-production system there simply are no weaknesses – it’s about speed and accuracy.”
   Getting business in to keep all those machines and tools operating is a quest Kobliska and his staff have fine-tuned over the years.
   “We get a lot of referral business,” says Kobliska. “But we’ve also got a few sales people; one on the commercial side, one on residential, and one on box stores, like Lowes.”
   Kobliska’s 11 years in the business allowed him to witness evolution of product within the industry, including present-day trends that might seem unusual.
   “We started back in the day with laminate and also with solid surface,” he says. “The trend then went to more natural stone. And, from that to quartz, which is the trend now. People are gravitating toward quartz countertops and a little away from natural stone. It seems like there are more and more brands of quartz, and more and more aesthetics.
   “For us,” he adds, “being from a solid-surface arena, quartz seems to be the way our clientele is going. I think that is because there are fewer issues around fabrication and more marketing campaigns. There’s also more-branded quartz, and not nearly so much with granite branding.
   “Needless to say, the quartz drives sales,” he adds. “The seams are nicer with quartz and there’s no maintenance. A lot of quartz possibilities have warranties, and that’s not so with granite. And then there’s the consistency – people want a homogenous look more than a natural look.”
   Lest it look like quartz is the only trend-game going in town, Kobliska says that a new trend in kitchen design includes concrete.
   “We’re getting a lot of requests for that,” says Kobliska. “People want something that is different than something else and they want it to be continuous.” 
   And although Kobliska believes continuous production to be a permanent piece of the K.G. Stevens organization, he also knows and understands that not all shops or fabricators are necessarily a good fit.
   “In some markets, continuous production is a must,” he says. “but not in all markets. We’re in the Milwaukee market, which is not so big. The small guy can survive just fine not doing continuous production – it’s just a different model – and it may not be as profitable because they might not have the volume.
   “You have to be able to do more than one job a week,” says Kobliska. “In the slow times, it’s really hard for the smaller fabricator. When it’s busy, there’s plenty of work for everyone.
   “The thing is, there’s always a place for the smaller fabricator. And there’s a place for continuous production. It fits for us and for our client base, and for what we want to be within this industry.
   “At the end of it all, there’s plenty of work for all of us –  and if you build a decent reputation, you’ll always be fine.”
   Cathie Beck is a freelance writer based in the Denver area. She recently completed a memoir, Cheap Cabernet: A Friendship.

This article first appeared in the June 2009 print edition of Stone Business. ©2008 Western Business Media