Stone People: Finding the Direct Route

The Fairfield plant today employs a staff of 18 in the stone shop, utilizing a robotic waterjet, four CNC machines and five edging machines. Along with eight people in the solid-surface shop, Halabi estimates the Fairfield location produces 1,100-1,300 ft2 of countertops daily.

MAKEOVER

As impressive as the company’s size was – and still is – Halabi says it couldn’t be done without the legions of good people Duracite employs.

“I came to realize early on that our product was really the employees who gave homeowners their dream kitchen or their dream house,” he says. “I decided to invest in my people, and I was one of the first who developed a piecework system where we’d pay our employees not just hourly, but also give them an incentive to get the jobs done and keep our customers happy.”

In fact, starting in 1992, much of the company’s expansion to different locations came because of its employees, and a desire to increase capacity.

“Any time you hire an employee and they stay with you for awhile, you put a lot of investment in bringing them to where they are.  Why not protect it?”

Fadi Halabi
Duracite Custom Countertops

“I’d put my people on a map and where I’d find four or five guys living in an area, I’d put a shop close to them so I could cut their commute time and make them more efficient,” Halabi explains. “By cutting their commute time down from an hour or 90 minutes, I was able to increase my capacity without adding employees.”

The company grew in just about every measurable way, expanding to almost 500 people before the building boom ended with a thud. Today, it numbers about 150, which is still large by many people’s standards … and remarkable, given the transformation Duracite underwent.

“Until the recession started hitting us, I’d say 90 percent of our business was wholesale,” Halabi says. “That’s selling to builders, selling to big-box stores, selling to dealers, and selling to contractors. About 10 percent – or even less – was in retail business. But, as the builders stopped building, we had to diversify ourselves.”

To “diversify,” Duracite changed its product and customer mix. In 2007, it stopped doing cultured marble for all intents and purposes, for the simple reason that it wasn’t making the company enough money. Instead, he opted to focus on maintaining the stone and solid-surface aspects of the operation; today, stone accounts for about 75 percent of the product sold, with solid surface representing the other 25 percent.

What’s really changed, though, is the customer base and how Duracite reaches it.

“Today, direct sales account for about 70 percent of our business,” Halabi says. “What we have is a network of in-home sales people and we do a lot of in-home selling, where we go to a customer’s home and create a total kitchen remodel package.”

And, when he says “total,” he means it. Unlike the old days, when a Duracite crew would show up late in the game after removal of old countertops or installation of new cabinets, today’s operation is much more turnkey.

“We come in, measure over the existing countertops, build the countertops, and then show back up at the customer’s home,” he says. “We disconnect and remove the appliances and the plumbing, level the cabinets, install the countertops, and get everything hooked back up again. The job is done in one or two days, and it’s given us a niche in the market; we can make the homeowner’s life easier because they’re dealing with only one contractor.”

Duracite also developed partnerships with leading sink and fixture manufacturers to enhance the homeowner’s one-stop-shopping experience. And, three years ago, the company also started selling cabinets as another service to its customers.

An important component of the company’s overall approach is its team of on-staff designers who work closely with homeowner/clients.