Fabricator Focus: CogswellStone, Palmyra, Va.

“I asked him how his business was going, and he said, ‘It’s going great because I bought one of these CNC machines,’” Cogswell relates. “I looked at it and thought, ‘Wow; I’m looking at spending $75,000, and this is a $200,000 machine.’”

Fortunately, the friend explained that the purchase could be financed for a minimal down-payment and then paid off over time.

Click photo to enlarge“Of course, when I got back and told Lisa I thought we needed to spend $200,000, it was quite a shock,” he adds, although the couple eventually decided to buy an Intermac Master Stone CNC.

“It was the best move we ever made,” he says. “We paid if off, it’s been making money for us for 10 years, and it was the workhorse of the business for some time.”

However, the CNC isn’t the only area where the Cogswells invested big and gained big returns. In a world where granite became a must-have in even moderately priced kitchens, the couple banked on marble.

“In our area a lot of our clients use marble, so we do a lot of marble kitchens,” John Cogswell explains. “So, while most distributors will carry 50-100 different varieties of granite and 10 varieties of marble, we’ve spent a lot of time and money investing in our inventory, and specifically the marbles that even the vendors and distributors don’t have.”

Over the years, that’s meant committing not just money, but also the time to visit Italy and to develop a relationship with someone there with whom the Cogswells are very comfortable. Often times, they buy by the block.

“We have it cut into 2cm, 3cm and 5cm slabs, so not only do we have matching materials for that $5 million house, but we can give them the 2” island and the 3cm countertops and the full backsplash,” Cogswell explains. “We’re not going to have to fudge on the project.”

Additionally, he believes it’s a huge sales tool for the discriminating client who’s working with an architect or interior designer.

“I could show them 12” X 12” samples and tell them they need to drive 50 miles to one distributor and 70 miles to another,” he says. “Or, I can take them into my warehouse and tag the slabs. If we have the materials here, I’m much less likely to have to bid the fabrication against someone else.”

Cogswell also takes care to have the marbles the distributors aren’t likely to have, or have them in a better quality than his competitors. And, he says it’s no accident that the company’s showroom has space to lay-out plans and little amenities such as cookies and cappuccinos.

BUILDING UNDERSTANDING

The other area where the Cogswells invested in a big way is the training of their employees. Particularly in the early days of the business, John Cogswell says it was difficult to retain good employees, and then get them to understand what had to be done – let alone how it should be done.