Stone People: Countering the Market
It’s an approach where White says he also can offer aggressive pricing and still make money, in part because it also involves some pretty standard colors of granite and quartz bought in bulk. And, he says, the individual buyer doesn’t get to pick his or her slab.
His only regret: “We’re offering products and doing work that when things were really good we didn’t even consider doing,” he says. “We should have, because we could have been making money at it, but we didn’t want to because we had our notions of what we wanted to do and what we preferred.”
Click photo to enlargeUltimately, he says, it’s just an example of how the recession has made Cache Valley Counter Tops a better company. He currently has a crew of two in the stone shop turning out one or two kitchens a day, and he says business is only about half of what it was a few years ago, but ….
“It’s been something we were able to manage and work through,” White says. “And, I also have 90-percent-less headaches, and 90-percent-less mistakes. Some of the customers who disappeared were poorly run businesses, and they were the ones where most of my headaches came from.
“My employees that weren’t the best are also no longer here. We’ve tightened out belt and kept the best people and our sales are going in the right direction.”
Right now, White says he’s trying to figure out what the next big thing will be – at least for Cache Valley Counter Tops.
“The next hot item used to be Corian, it used to be quartz, it used to be granite,” he says. “What’s next? I’ve had some people suggest we get into floor coverings, but I don’t know if I want to tackle that.”
Instead, White says he may just have to take a breather and be grateful for what he has.
“I’m certainly willing to look for new opportunities and take advantage of what we can,” he concludes. “But, I think my focus right now is just to take care of what we’ve got.”
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