Grassie Granite and Marble, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

January 4, 2006

   He turned to granite and marble.
   In many ways, the two industries were very similar, and Grassie realized he could use some of the same fabrication equipment for both substrates. So, in January 2000, he opened Grassie Granite and Marble in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

IT'S THE TOPS
   Grassie Granite and Marble specializes in countertops, but also offers floor medallions. Most recently, Grassie expanded his operation to sell stone accessories including pedestal sinks, birdbaths, benches, fountains and fireplace surrounds. The accessories are shipped in, ready-made, from China, he says.
   In the Myrtle Beach area, many of the homes are second and third vacation homes and money flows like a downhill stream. Grassie says most of the work he does requires a minimum of three slabs, for 120 ft² of stone.
   “We also make switch-plate covers,” Grassie says. “No one else around here does that.” Putting the usual white or tan switch-plate cover around the new granite or marble countertops, “just looks hideous,” he adds.
   These aren’t just any run of the mill covers, either. Grassie uses the same stone used in the rest of a countertop job, but slices it down to a much-thinner profile using an ESAB waterjet.
   Operating out of a 26,000 ft² facility, Grassie’s shop includes the waterjet/cutter, three CNC routers from Z Bavelloni, two Pedrini bridge saws, a CNC edger and polisher, and a Cam Tech Industries laser engraver. The Cam Tech can score intricate designs in stone, glass and wood; Grassie says he uses the etcher and the CNC edger on glass products from his son's company. (Grassie sold the glass business to him in 2004).
   Thanks to the help of two Gorbel cranes, the materials are easily transported from one fabrication station to the next.
   Running everything via computer-aided machinery is one key to Grassie's success.
   “We've got five or six other shops competing with us around here, but they're still in the hand-fabricating stage,” Grassie says. “We like to say we brought everything from the Flintstones era to the Jetsons era.”
   With the computers, the accuracy is right on, and that makes for a big selling point. The water jet isn’t exceedingly fast when it comes to cutting stone — Grassie estimates it takes a minute to cut 7”-8” of 3cm granite – but the final result is within .005ths of an inch.
   “It will go through steel, stone, stainless and even titanium,” he said. “We can cut aluminum at about 60 inches a minute, for your standard 1/8” thickness.”
   Even with all the technology, Grassie still employs a staff of 26. Grassie Granite and Marble installs all its work, and Grassie says he's even developed a more-efficient way to transport finished work.
   “We use glass trucks,” he says. “Now the glass people are selling glass trucks to the granite guys.”
   Grassie explains why it works: “It's better than putting it in the back of a pickup truck with one guy in the truck and the other guy on the ground. You have to drag it out to move it, and if you lose your footing you're going to lose the stone.”
   A glass truck allows the stone to sit at “grab-height right at your knees,” he says. “You just move it to the dolly and get it to where you're going.”

HAND-PICKED STONE
   Grassie Granite and Marble also offers a strong selling point to customers with its stone yard; the company just added a 5,000 ft² building to house inventory already sold. A new home won't be completed for up to six months, but homeowners can make their choices for the countertops in advance and have it protected before fabrication in the coming weeks or months.
   “I've got about a million dollars in inventory out there,” Grassie says of his stone yard. “The customer hand picks the slab they want, and they know that's what they'll get.”
   Grassie gets his stone from locations around the world, but primarily from Brazil, India and Dubai (the latter being his source for travertine). There’s a quarry not far from Myrtle Beach, he says, but he doesn't generally purchase stone from anywhere in the U.S.; Brazil supplies most of the stone Grassie Granite and Marble uses.
   Early on, he purchased granite and marble, as he needed it for individual jobs, through the regular channels; as business increased, so did Grassie's need for much more stone … and now he buys direct.
   He receives 40 to 50 containers of stone every year, each containing about 50 slabs and he has never had an excess of inventory, nor has he suffered a delay in sales. Even after the tragedy of September 11, Grassie said business never stalled.
   “When I moved here in 1978, Myrtle Beach had a permanent population of about 15,000,” he says. “Now it's 75,000 or more and we swell up to 1.5 million during tourist season.”
   Mostly retirees, they're building million-dollar homes in one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Grassie says using stone in new homes in the area is common these days, and granite is becoming more affordable all the time.
   "Some stone is more affordable than others, depending on the availability of the stone, like Blue Bahia. I only stock two slabs," he said.

TAKING CARE OF THE CUSTOMER
   Grassie still gets out in the shop to do a little fabricating when he has the time, and is hands-on when it comes to customer care. In such a close community, Grassie says he may see his customers around town, perhaps in a neighborhood restaurant. And word travels fast, especially if something went wrong.
   “I still go into the homes,” he says. “I'm friends with everybody.”
   It's worth keeping the customer to let the job go for free if it comes down to it. He won't argue with customers.
   “I think there was only one person that had a complaint that we couldn't fix,” he says. “But, you had to be standing on your head at three in the afternoon – after two martinis – to find the flaw, if the sun was just right.”
   Every once in a while you're going to run into someone you can't satisfy. “You give them your blessing and you move on,” he says.
   After 35 years in the glass business, Grassie has found something that piques his interest. He believes the granite business will never get old. He still gets glass jobs through the doors, as his son's business may need to use some of his computer-run equipment to fabricate glass for a job.
   Grassie says when he left the glass industry to start Grassie Granite and Marble, he told himself he wouldn't make the same mistakes he made in the glass business – like running out of room for all the equipment necessary to do the job right.
   “When I built this building I said I'll never, ever fill it,” he says. “I had two little pieces of equipment. Now we're crammed for room, and we may add another saw next year."