Stone Technics, Atlanta

“We are a high-end custom fabrication shop focusing on countertops, bar-tops, stone sinks, tub decks, fireplaces and fireplace surrounds,” says Jim Vienneau, “but our particular specialty is the kind of projects that we do.
“We truly do a lot of things other fabricators won’t try or can’t do. We have certain applications that are a cut above what you’d normally find with typical fabrications.”
And, that begs the question: What are those certain applications?
“We have gotten very good at doing step-treads for stone staircases,” says Jim. “Another specialty of ours is customizing the under-lit onyx bars in both residential and commercial settings.
“We use a translucent onyx and light it from inside the cabinetry in a special way. It creates a beautiful glow; the light transfers through the stone and makes the stone a spectacular color.
“We’re in the process of doing a particularly spectacular decorator bar in Atlanta right now,” he adds. “But we can do this effect with any kind of countertop—it could be a bathroom or kitchen, but we do it most often in a basement bar.”
Focusing only within the exclusive and high-end residential market, the Vienneaus, in launching their business, sought to establish themselves as the one-stop fabricator dedicated to “non-production-type” fabrication and installation.
“In some of the large high-end homes they want one fabricator to do everything in the house that is slab-related,” says Jim Vienneau. “They might have countertops, fireplace surrounds, tub decks, etc., that they want installed. But sometimes they have travertine or marble stairs that they also want done.
“That installation is tricky and tedious,” he adds. “Many fabricators don’t do that. The value proposition that we bring to the builder is that we can and do almost anything – we can handle the whole job. They don’t have to find another fabricator to do step-treads.”
Stone Technics (pronounced “tech neeks”) began in 2000 as an extension of Ceramic Technics, a profitable ceramic-tile company. In 2004, the Vienneaus acquired the stone-fabrication division and launched Stone Technics as a separate company.
“Now we’re four years later and have expanded it and doubled the revenues,” says Jim Vienneau. “We moved away from what we call the middle-market or ‘down-market’ – the cookie-cutter tops in $500,000 homes in the Atlanta area – which every fabricator does.
“We moved to the multimillion-dollar homes,” he adds, “and the requirements at that level are really a lot different than half-million-dollar spec homes. They require a higher quality of fabrication, and a higher level of coordination on the jobsite.
“At times we’ve got 20 to 25 discreet areas that we’re doing stone in, so there is a coordination aspect of this that is different than walking in, templating a kitchen, and installing a week later.”
And approaching sometimes a dozen or more areas within a multimillion-dollar home can call for fancy fabrication dancing that’s sophisticated and finely executed.
“It’s complex, very unique designs in every section of a house rather than the standard done in a half-million-dollar home,” Jim Vienneau says. “But we say, ‘If you can dream it, we can execute on it.’ Our customers come up with all sorts of wacky designs and we take the time to do that rather than install cookie-cutter work.
“Almost everything we do is hand-fabricated,” he adds. “And for all of that specialty work, we used different tools. We have a Marmo Meccanica bridge saw and two straight-edge profilers and polishers, also from Marmo Meccanica. However, the nature of countertops we do calls for bump-outs and angles and the like, and the straight-line machines only do straight lines.
“Because of the nature of our high-end business, most of that gets done by hand. All of our polishing is done by hand with pneumatic polishers. We have a wet shop rather than a dry shop, and we recycle all of our water. That’s important in Atlanta, given our drought conditions.”
Given the versatility and high-end approach to fabrication and installation, the Vienneaus keep much product on hand and subsequently enjoy a spacious work environment.
“We have just under 16,000 ft², most of which is slab storage,” says Jim Vienneau. “And we have 11 employees, including our front office people,” he says. “We have three fabricators, and our saw man is also our main template guy. We have a shop manager and two installers and then there is the front office. Jackie and I work from an overall operations perspective, with outside builder sales mainly on me.
“We’ve got a retail arm of our organization for home owners who are managing their own projects,” he adds. “And anyone in our front office, including Bonnie, our production manager, or Peggy, our office manager, can take care of home owner customers.”
It’s no accident that the Vienneaus turned an already profitable company into a very profitable and growing one. Jim Vienneau believes that focusing on the particular market that Stone Technics services was the exact tact to take.
“We had a very well-thought-out strategy,” he says. “In Atlanta, there are more than 200 fabricators. Most are focused on production work: condominiums, track homes, and up to half-million-dollar houses in subdivisions. Those jobs have maybe five floor plans and seven colors to work with. It’s very high-volume, but not complex, work.
“Furthermore, everyone competes there, and it’s very price-competitive – there’s no loyalty from a builder’s perspective. A $2 break on some item and they’ll change in a heartbeat – almost anyone can execute on that work.
“Four years ago we decided, since we have the talent internally, to execute in the up-market,” he adds. “We started working with builders who have a lot higher-end type of requirements. They may only have one or two areas that are spectacular. They might have needed that extraordinary project, but also needed the mundane.”
And the result?
“What’s happened since then,” he notes, “is that we’ve gone from doing a 45 ft(2) kitchen to doing whole houses that might be $50,000 to $100,000 revenue for us. That market is not as prone to the ups and downs of the housing market, especially considering what we’re going through right now.
“In the next few months we’ll be as busy as we’ve ever been. We’ve got multimillion-dollar homes going at the same time – that’s a lot of revenue.”
And, of course, it’s about the reputation that Stone Technics built over the past four years. Being able to take the plain-Jane jobs – along with the custom-made – and all of it being done simultaneously (often multiple homes at the same time) makes Stone Technics an obvious choice for the exclusive home building community.
“Because of our ability to execute on the specialty stuff – plus take care of builders and all of those details – we’ve been able to earn the reputation of service beyond what most fabricators can do,” Jim Vienneau says. “Now, when they need something, they call us. We stand behind our work beyond what most fabricators will around here. That engenders tremendous amounts of loyalty from our builders.”
And, those loyal builders help bring in additional business via their industry relationships.
“We work with builders, with kitchen-bath retail outfits, with cabinet companies, and with remodeling contractors alike,” he says. “We’ve got a nice, broad base within what I refer to as ‘our channel.’
“It’s about word-of-mouth and repeat business. That’s our main source of business. We’ve only done one Yellow Pages ad, and we hardly ever do trade shows. Ninety-nine percent of our business comes from referrals.
“Oddly enough, we’ve done a good job of networking with other trades. They’ve got relationships with builders and we’ve worked with them to get introductions; we get new relationships from our reputation.”
Not only does Stone Technics secure the introduction; the company’s reputation helps to solidify that introduction and turn it into more business.
“Today I’m meeting with a kitchen-and-bath company here in Atlanta that probably does 150 kitchens a year,” Jim Vienneau says. “Our relationships with a cabinet company brought us to this kitchen-and-bath company as the fabricator. It’s very likely that we will be their exclusive fabricator because of what the industry knows about us and our work.”
And therein lies Vienneau’s final word on how to make the industry work for anyone wanting to build a successful stone-fabrication company.
“I’d tell anyone wanting to work in this field to get very clear on the market they want to focus upon,” he says. “There’s a big spectrum of market out there, and there’s nothing wrong with working within the lower-end market. But you have to be set up for that.
“Just be sure,” he adds, “be very sure of the market you want to chase.”
Cathie Beck is a Denver-based freelance writer.

This article first appeared in the March 2008 print edition of Stone Business. ©2008 Western Business Media Inc.