Stone People: Blume’s Solid Surface Products
By K. Schipper
FREEPORT, Pa. – Gus and Dottie Blume know how to fabricate countertops, and they’re not afraid to share that knowledge with anyone who needs it – including competitors.
Click photo to enlargeCountertops have been part of Gus Blume’s life since he joined his dad making tops for a laminate company while still in high school, and in the early days of their first business the Blumes were known as “the husband-and-wife installers.”
The couple left the laminate business in 1988, launching Blume’s Solid Surface Products. From there, it wasn’t such a big step to getting into granite and engineered stone, and today the company offers a mix of products for contractors, kitchen-and-bath shops, and other fabricators – all at wholesale.
However, the real secret to their years of success is quite simple: Everyone from the Blumes on down makes sure that each job is the best the company can send out.
SHOOTING FOR THE TOP
Dottie Blume says an important thing to realize about her husband is that he always wanted to own his own business.
She explains that Gus Blume started working for a company in New Kensington, Pa., that produced laminate countertops. However, after stints in the U.S. Army and college – not to mention getting married – he was ready to be his own boss.
“That was always his life’s dream,” Dottie Blume says. “With him knowing the laminate business, that’s how we got into it. We approached the laminate company about selling us materials. We started in the basement of a lumberyard warehouse; we made countertops for them and they paid us for piece work, like 50 cents for a bowl cut-out.”
It was during those early days of doing laminate tops that the couple became known for doing their own installations. However, Dottie Blume says, over time, the company was able to add employees and move out of the basement location.
However, as the late 1980s approached, the Blumes could see the handwriting on the wall with laminate tops.
“A local lumberyard approached us with the idea of doing solid surface,” Dottie Blume says. “We played around with it and liked the product. At that time the laminate business was not as viable as it had been in the past, so we sold that and got into the solid-surface business.”
And, while they were back in a basement again, “at least this time it was my house,” she adds.
However, Blume’s Solid Surface Products didn’t stay limited to that product – or the basement – very long. Dottie Blume says they were pushed by some of the big-box stores in their area of western Pennsylvania to get into engineered-stone products, along with encouragement by some of their suppliers, including DuPont®.
From their home shop, the couple moved first into an 8,000-ft² facility, and then into their current 55,000-ft² shop near Freeport’s Industrial Park.
