Fabricator Focus: CogswellStone, Palmyra, Va.

This is a couple who moved a successful installation business from the populated environs of New York’s Long Island to a place so small it doesn’t have a single stoplight … or even show up on some maps.

Click photo to enlargeNot only did its size quickly encourage them to add fabrication to their business mix, but they then dove into deep water financially – buying a CNC machine when it was more of a curiosity than a must-have item in the industry.

Fortunately, they came up swimming, buoyed by some additional canny decisions that have positioned CogswellStone as the go-to place for stone – particularly marble – in what’s proven to be an area with some very well-off neighbors.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Among the amazing things about this successful couple is that John Cogswell hasn’t spent his entire career in stone. He began his working life as a plumber.

“I went into business as a partner with a marble setter, out on Long Island,” he explains. “We primarily did renovation work – soup-to-nuts renovation – and I helped him and he helped me. Over time, it got so I enjoyed doing what he did at least as much as I enjoyed my part.”

Even after the partner moved out to the eastern end of Long Island, Cogswell kept the company going, doing renovations. And, he adds, much of his stonework involved taking templates to a fabricator, having the pieces cut, and then assembling them in the field.Click photo to enlarge

Things might have continued in that way indefinitely. But, when the Cogswells decided to start a family, they wanted to do it away from New York. And, they planned on continuing with countertops after the move.

“We found a nice spot, and when we got down here, we started doing the same thing in Palmyra, Va.,” Cogswell says of the move in 1993. “But, there were not nearly as many fabricators that we had options to go with as we did in New York.”

Realizing they would have to take a slightly different approach, the Cogswells borrowed some money from Lisa’s grandmother, bought some equipment, and started doing their own fabrication. CogswellStone opened for business in 1997.

About the only difference between the Cogswells and many other start-ups of the time is that they were able to begin in a space somewhat larger than the proverbial garage.