Custom Stone Interiors, Centre Hall, Pa.
The partners have developed that aspect of their market by working with some local landscape designers/contractors, and with another company that sells grills and barbecues as part of a focus on outdoor living areas of all types.
Waltz adds that CSI has built its business in part by its willingness to partner with several designers in the area.
“I do in-home consultations and I’m happy to work with customers directly,” he says. “But, if they’re having problems designing color combinations that include cabinetry, tile and countertops, I’ll refer them to one of the designers we work with.
“I have a general idea of what might look good and what might not, but for people who are really interested in dialing it in, I’d rather they talk to a designer; that’s what they’re paid to do.”
Waltz says his strong point is seeing trends in how things go together. And, he adds that a lot of people are pretty knowledgeable about what they want today, thanks in large part to the Internet and television’s home-decorating shows.
“Every day we have people coming into the showroom saying, ‘We saw such-and-such on TV,’” he says. “It’s a big contributing factor to what people are doing. It gives them ideas and they can see what other people are putting together.”
The company’s working relationships with local designers go both ways, although Waltz says that’s just one of several ways CSI markets its work. Other outlets include local kitchen-and-bath shops and area cabinetmakers.
Another strong area has been the company’s relationships with some of the homebuilders in their central Pennsylvania market, although the economy recently threw cold water on that.
“About 70 percent of what we did last year were people updating their kitchens and bathrooms,” Waltz says. “New home construction is way down, probably to about 10 percent of our work last year.”
A growing portion of the business is commercial work.
“A lot of that is local restaurants,” he says. “We just recently completed a restaurant project with granite bar tops and serving areas. We also just completed a hotel conference center that put in a large reception desk area. And, we’ve got a bar in State College and a pizzeria here locally coming up.
“We don’t get involved in the bigger projects because there isn’t enough margin in there for us. We like to focus on the higher-end projects.”
STILL EVOLVING
The economy’s impact on CSI’s business mix has encouraged the partners to make some changes to their operation. A key one is advertising.