Cangelosi Company, Missouri City, Texas

   “We import, fabricate, and install stone,” he says. “And when I say, ‘stone,’ I mean virtually all types of stone – granite, onyx, soapstone – every type of stone we can have cut.”
   Today there’s an entire family of Cangelosis in the stone business at the Missouri City company, and, needless to say, they collectively have untold number of years working, crafting, importing and fabricating.
   “We fabricate and install in both commerciall and custom residential sectors,” he adds, “as well as in what we call the ‘production builder industry’ – builders who do multiple homes in excess of 100 each year.”
   Though Cangelosi first worked in stone on his own in the early 1960s, he officially launched Cangelosi Company from his home in March 1970.
   “At first, when I worked on my own, I represented manufacturers and fabricators of stone from Italy and the U.S., selling stone products to stone contractors,” he says. “Then, I launched my own business, and by 1980 we were fabricating for small commercial and primarily custom residential customers.
    “In 1983 we began to do a lot of the high-rise buildings around Texas and in the Southeast. Again, mostly high-rise projects, using some large domestic fabricators and doing the installation.”
   Those simple Cangelosi beginnings seem a lifetime away. Fast forward to today, and the Cangelosi operation boasts 60,000 ft² of shop space and dozens of employees.
   “Our shop and warehouse facilities are about 48,000 ft²,” says Cangelosi. “And we have an acre of outdoor area for stocking slabs.”
   Cangelosi’s now the company chairman, while Donae Cangelosi Chramosta serves as Cangelosi Company president. Son Chris Cangelosi runs plant and field production, and long-time employee, Michael Whit (“like family,” says Vito Cangelosi), serves as vice president.
   “Our staff breaks out to about 30 sales and administrative people,” the elder Cangelosi says. “We employ about 30 shop and warehouse personnel, and have anywhere from 50 to 60 people working in the field.”
   And the operation needs every one of those workers. With $11 million in sales in 2006 and an estimated $13 million in sales revenue last year, Vito Cangelosi is glad to have the dedicated family and staff he presently employs, though he admits that these sales revenues aren’t the highest the Cangelosi organization has seen.
   “Back in the ‘80s, we did as much as $26 million in sales,” he says, “But the high-rise market is not today what it was back then. In those days we worked further out into the Southeast and in Texas, which we no longer do.”
   Cangelosi’s achievements in recent years remain impressive, however, including work on an American Airlines terminal at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and the Federal Inspection Services Building at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
   Since the Cangelosi Company launch, however, Vito Cangelosi has watched the industry evolve, not so much in product, but in process.
   “The product hasn’t changed a great deal,” he says. “What has changed is the process of extracting blocks from quarries. It has been revolutionized due to higher technologies, equipment and procedures, which has kept the price of granite down.
   “Twenty-five or 30 years ago, we worked the stone by hand,” he adds. “Today, there’s the automated machinery; it’s now done by automated equipment. The industry has introduced the computerization, if you will, of fabrication that has brought about all of that change.”
   However, Vito Cangelosi has watched the artisans – or lack thereof – affect the quality and the way in which stone is bought, sold, and installed.
   “Perhaps more important, the people in our business are no longer stone people,” he says. “They’re people who’ve done other things and have attended a stone show. They found they could buy automated equipment to do what we had to have the talent and the knowledge to do. They believe they can do our craft now with equipment.
   “So, we now have people in the industry who really don’t know stone who we must compete with. That’s the biggest change.”
   Since Missouri City, a suburb of Houston, sits so close to the Texas-Mexico border, Vito Cangelosi says that there is also a problem with undocumented immigrants or illegal aliens infiltrating the market as well.
   “In Texas there is an illegal alien population that comes in from Mexico with a great deal of ability to work with their hands and who understand the working of stone,” says Cangelosi. “They come here and go into business for themselves.
   “Furthermore, 25 years ago, there were only two warehouses in Houston that sold stone slabs,” he adds. “In order to buy those slabs, you had to purchase an entire crate or bundle, which could cost $1,000 to $5,000. People weren’t often in a position to buy an entire bundle.”
   The recent market has changed buying power, says Vito Cangelosi, which isn’t necessary a good thing for veterans in the business.
   “In Houston we now have 300 to 400 warehouses that will sell one slab, and in some cases, a half-slab,” he says. “This has made it difficult for people like us who’ve invested several million dollars in product and equipment. This is a sizable overhead factor. It’s made it difficult to compete for the homeowner who wants to switch out countertops.”
   In addition to these market changes, quality is continually compromised in today’s stone product possibilities. The definition of the term artisan seems to grow muddier by day, in Vito Cangelosi’s workaday world.
   “Other layers of lesser quality keep popping up as well,” he says. “For example, it’s now possible to buy containers of slabs from China. Though the quality is not as good as what we can give them, it is affordable. Coupled with the use of low-cost subcontractor labor and the low-priced product, there’s additional competition.
   “The idea, of course, is that granite is granite and quality is not important,” he adds. “The thing is, it used to take marble people – people who understood marble – to work in this industry. We have craftsmen who’ve been with us 30 years. They have ability and artisan talent to do so much by hand.
   “Even today, people bring pictures or drawings or wood impressions and ask if we can match for fireplace mantels and such. There are no tools for that, but we have the people who are talented who do that type of work by hand.
   “Anyone can install and cut and fabricate a kitchen countertop,” he notes, “but few can do cornices and doorframes and custom design work from drawings. We can do that type of work.”
   To produce that type of detailed, customized and artistic end-product, the Cangelosis turn to several pieces of critical equipment.
    “We have two GMM Lexta bridge saws, two Montresor Laura S80s, a Calypso water jet, a Noat bridge saw, and a Park Industries Wizard radial-arm polisher,” says Chris Cangelosi. “And, we use them all. Others have this equipment and, as my father said, we’re competing with other people who can purchase this equipment.
   “But ,there are so many variables in this business. You can buy all the parts – like buying the parts to a Mercedes Benz. But if you don’t know the business and don’t know how to build the Mercedes Benz, like we do, you’ve just got equipment.”
   Furthermore, Chris Cangelosi feels that anyone wanting to truly succeed in this business must pay some dues, study the industry, and hone their craft.
   “If someone wants to get ahead in this business, they need to go to work for a bona fide stone-fabrication company,” he says. “They need to work with someone who knows where to buy good quality products and with a company who knows how to buy products.
   “We’re in all facets of it, and we do high-end custom residential and we do high-end production. The custom work takes a great deal of attention; once it’s all installed, it needs to look like it’s grown out of the walls and into that cabinetry or the furniture.
   “Just because you’re doing work with someone who does 500 homes a year,” he adds, “that customer still expects a product that looks very, very good. This is critical: For someone wanting to get into the countertop business, for example, they must go to work for someone successful in the countertop business and learn every aspect of the countertop business.”
   “At the end of it all quality really is what matters,” says Vito Cangelosi. “We have decades of purchasing power, and decades of craftsmanship at Cangelosi Company. We’ve watched the industry grow and change and evolve over many, many years.
   “People can skimp and cut corners to some degree, but for the long-haul, for the reputation and being known as the best in the business, you have to be the best – and that takes years and a lot of hard work.”
   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 May 2008 print edition of Stone Business. ©2008 Western Business Media Inc.