Fabricator Focus: CogswellStone, Palmyra, Va.

“We rented a warehouse, built our own worktables, and started with grinders and hand-tools to put a bullnose edge on,” John Cogswell says. “It was very primitive, but we did have a designated shop area and enough space for inside storage.

“Fortunately, our timing was great,” he adds. “The stone industry was starting to go crazy. We were able to build the business off that, and we’ve never looked back.”

Click photo to enlargeBesides their background in installation, the Cogswells did have a couple other things going for them that many start-ups of the time lacked. One was employees. After re-launching their operation in Virginia, they hired two helpers.

“The man who is our shop manager has been with me for about 16 years,” John Cogswell says. “We grew up in the business together.”

And, while Palmyra may be little more than a wide spot in the road, it’s conveniently located about 15 miles east of Charlottesville, Va., the historic home of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the University of Virginia and its internationally known schools of business, law and medicine.

“There are a lot of businesses that contract to the U.S. government in the area, too,” he says of the neighborhood. “There are also a lot of large homes and affluent people.”

BEST INVESTMENT

From its humble beginnings, CogswellStone (that’s one word, no space in the middle) continued to grow steadily. After outgrowing the warehouse, the business moved into what’s grown to be an approximately 6,000 ft² facility that initially incorporated the shop, showroom and covered warehouse space.Click photo to enlarge

“We outgrew that relatively quickly, and started looking for some additional space,” Cogswell says. “We ended up moving our offices and showroom to another location about a mile from the fabrication shop in an old general store that we remodeled.

“It has about 1,500 ft² of office space, a 3,000 ft² showroom, and a 4,000 ft² indoor warehouse. Plus, we have a two-acre yard where we can spread slabs out all over.”

The company had already purchased a fair amount of equipment – bridge saw, radial-arm polisher, inline backsplash polisher and hand-held routers – before the Cogswells took an unexpected but ultimately profitable plunge into the world of CNC technology.

Cogswell explains that he went to StonExpo one year with the idea of buying an automated line-polishing machine. Then, he ran into an old friend from New York that he hadn’t seen in some time.