Classic Stone LLC, Indianapolis
Plus, it didn’t hurt that Marsh and Weddige had the opportunity to purchase an existing stone shop in Indianapolis in late 2008.
“It already had an established location in town, machinery and an absentee owner who wanted to get out of the business,” says Marsh. “We saw this as a very good opportunity to essentially jump into the deep end. It just gives us a better assortment for our builders and developers, and even for our high-end designers and retailers.”
Click to enlargeBy purchasing the existing shop, Marsh says Classic Stone picked up a crew of three, as well as a Park Industries Yukon® saw and a PRO-EDGE®. The company has subsequently added a Fastback for backsplashes, as well as more employees.
Today, Classic Stone employs a dozen people, including five in the shop and a two-person install crew supervised by Mike Derziotis, Smith (the templater), and Jeri Norris, who wears multiple hats as the company’s office manager, marketing manager and in-house designer.
Despite the addition of the natural stone, Norris says the company’s relationship with Cambria remains strong. Still, the natural-stone offering meant changes to Classic’s operation.
For one thing, more designers want to bring their customers to see the stone and Classic has started to see some walk-in clientele, which has prompted the need for the operation’s first showroom at its fabrication shop.
Plans are on track to finish the new showroom in early 2011 – a real must, says Norris, as the company looks ahead to this year’s home, garden-and-patio and flower shows, which will be used to make Classic’s name better known to the local public.
“We’re anxious to get the showroom up and going,” says Norris. “Our first priority is to create a place where our current designers can bring their customers to pick out their stone and tile. This will naturally make it a place where the homeowners we sell to will want to come and browse.
“ Our second objective is to showcase what we do. For example, we do complete outdoor-kitchen spaces, but very few people associate that with us. We want to be able to have a nice showroom to bring them to and really show off what we can do.”
The company is already into some direct-mail campaigns and is updating its website with that in mind. Weddige says it may be necessary to add another employee or an intern to really beef that up.
“I see us increasing not only the technological side of our website, but also getting more into social media and brand representation,” Weddige says. “We need to get a little better on our Facebook and on Tweeting.”