Peter J. Marcucci

From left to right: Harrison Hoffmeyer holding Penelope Squirrel (their Boston Terrier mascot), Matt Hoffmeyer, Julie Hoffmeyer and Terry Hoffmeyer.

From left to right: Harrison Hoffmeyer holding Penelope Squirrel (their Boston Terrier mascot), Matt Hoffmeyer, Julie Hoffmeyer and Terry Hoffmeyer. 
The small but neat showroom features sixty 12 inch by 24 inch color samples displayed on two walls, while basics like Ubatuba, Venetian Gold and Verde Peacock fill a third wall.

Above: The small but neat showroom features sixty 12 inch by 24 inch color samples displayed on two walls, while basics like Ubatuba, Venetian Gold and Verde Peacock fill a third wall.
Matt Hoffmeyer’s cousin, Terry (foreground), says the company’s Blue Ripper rail saw has been a workhorse for them, very efficient and easy to use. In the background, Matt’s son Harrison Hoffmeyer wet polishes that week’s kitchen. The Blue Ripper came from Braxton-Bragg, as do many of their production tools and supplies.

Above: Matt Hoffmeyer’s cousin, Terry (foreground), says the company’s Blue Ripper rail saw has been a workhorse for them, very efficient and easy to use. In the background, Matt’s son Harrison Hoffmeyer wet polishes that week’s kitchen. The Blue Ripper came from Braxton-Bragg, as do many of their production tools and supplies. 
Matt Hoffmeyer pilots their forklift to move in the next slab. “The two men in our shop have been doing fabrication a long time and are really good at it,” said Matt Hoffmeyer. Mammoth Granite’s fab-shop is fully wet — safety is of primary concern.

Above: Matt Hoffmeyer pilots their forklift to move in the next slab. “The two men in our shop have been doing fabrication a long time and are really good at it,” said Matt Hoffmeyer. Mammoth Granite’s fab-shop is fully wet — safety is of primary concern.
Terry Hoffmeyer loads a 3cm slab onto their concrete tilt bench. “Customers are encouraged to either view selected slabs at one of four vendors or be here when they’re delivered. If they don’t like them they are sent back,” said Julie Hoffmeyer.

Above: Terry Hoffmeyer loads a 3cm slab onto their concrete tilt bench. “Customers are encouraged to either view selected slabs at one of four vendors or be here when they’re delivered. If they don’t like them they are sent back,” said Julie Hoffmeyer.
matching kitchen install and custom fabricated table. Julie explains, “A local job in the Escanaba, Michigan area called for Namibian Gold. Simply put, the customer wanted it, and the only slabs we could find were on the East Coast. So, we jumped in the truck and drove all the way there with a gooseneck flat bed trailer, and drove the three slabs needed back here for fabrication. We could not find three slabs anywhere in a warehouse even remotely close to us! We are always willing to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.

Above and Below: atching kitchen install and custom fabricated table.

Julie explains, “A local job in the Escanaba, Michigan area called for Namibian Gold. Simply put, the customer wanted it, and the only slabs we could find were on the East Coast. So, we jumped in the truck and drove all the way there with a gooseneck flat bed trailer, and drove the three slabs needed back here for fabrication. We could not find three slabs anywhere in a warehouse even remotely close to us! We are always willing to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.
matching kitchen install and custom fabricated table. Julie explains, “A local job in the Escanaba, Michigan area called for Namibian Gold. Simply put, the customer wanted it, and the only slabs we could find were on the East Coast. So, we jumped in the truck and drove all the way there with a gooseneck flat bed trailer, and drove the three slabs needed back here for fabrication. We could not find three slabs anywhere in a warehouse even remotely close to us! We are always willing to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy.
Julie Hoffmeyer greets visitors to the Mammoth Granite showroom, and spends most of her time doing sales. “Rarely do our customers feel the need to do custom layout, but when they do, most certainly we offer personal layout. Some customers ask us to hold onto their remnants for a future project, and we will do that, too,” said Julie.

Julie Hoffmeyer greets visitors to the Mammoth Granite showroom, and spends most of her time doing sales. “Rarely do our customers feel the need to do custom layout, but when they do, most certainly we offer personal layout. Some customers ask us to hold onto their remnants for a future project, and we will do that, too,” said Julie.

The Mammoth Granite story begins just prior to the year 2000. Matt and Julie Hoffmeyer, who operate this small, successful enterprise in Escanaba, Michigan, had decided that the cost charged by locals to fabricate their own granite dream kitchen was a bit too pricey. Undeterred, the couple took the initiative and did it themselves. Things just snowballed from there, recounts Matt Hoffmeyer: 

“Our company began while we were building our house in 1999. Julie and I wanted granite countertops, and the closest place we could get them was in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Back then, those tops priced out at over $12,000. Today, for the same size kitchen and same material, our company would charge between $6,000 and $7,000. It was crazy what they were charging! 

“So we shopped around and found a family-owned fabrication company called Khouri Granite LLC., located in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. My brother-in-law also wanted a granite kitchen, so I did the templating on both, took them to Khouri Granite, and they fabricated them. It was a seven and a half hour drive each way going through customs, and then we’d install them. George Khouri later approached us with the idea that maybe we’d like to do installation as a business. At the time, I was a union brick mason and had worked with stone on some fireplace brick jobs.”

By 2005 it got to the point that it was too much work for Matt and Julie to continue to transport countertops fabricated in Canada, and they began doing their own fabrication. Soon after, in 2006, they opened the doors to Mammoth Granite. “So that’s how it started,” continued Matt. “Things were rolling pretty good from 2006 to 2008 until the collapse of the economy. Fortunately, we’ve stayed busy.”

The Mammoth Facility

The “everything under one roof” building is a conservative 2,400 square feet, with the showroom tucked into 616 square feet. The showroom, managed mostly by Julie, features 60 12-inch by 24-inch color samples that fill two walls, while basic granite samples like Ubatuba, Venetian Gold, Verde Peacock fill a third wall. Strategically placed vignettes serve to inspire customers, while thoughtfully positioned seating is available for customer consultation. 

The 1,800 square foot shop, amply staffed by fabricators/installers Terry Hoffmeyer (cousin) and Harrison Hoffmeyer (son), houses a minimum of tools and equipment: a radial arm polisher, rail saw, two work benches and a forklift with Braxton-Bragg Hercules boom to move large pieces in and out. There’s neither CNC nor edge machine in the house. No bridge saw, either. Impossible, you say? Not so, said Matt. 

“We keep it simple to keep overhead down. We saw with a Blue Ripper rail saw on a tilt bed concrete table. It’s amazing just how simple you can do things if you want to!”

 One kitchen and a few vanities per week is the average workload with 80 percent of Mammoth Granite’s edge work being eased both top and bottom. They do, however, offer ogee and full bull nose. 

“We use our electric router for bull nose and ogee, and then polish by hand. Occasionally, some customers want fancy edges, but most people like our standard eased edge. We don’t get much commercial work here, either. I have bid projects like that but we’ve never gotten one of those bids.

“Some customers come in with a print out from the big box stores,. They price by the square foot, but then there’s a cutting charge, sink hole charge, polishing charge, backsplash charge and a mileage charge. These charges keep adding up. I find that the people around here appreciate just one simple price. Most of our jobs require just a square foot price per material installed with our standard edge, one sink hole cut and polished. We keep it as simple as we can keep it.” And it works for Mammoth Granite.

Service is Key

Mammoth Granite services the entire Upper Peninsula, including Mackinac Island. 60 percent of these homes are considered upscale, but small (1,500-2,500 square feet) in comparison to other upscale areas throughout the US. 

Matt continues, “The Escanaba population is only 12,000, so you have to be willing to travel. We do a lot of retirement homes and summer homes — many from the Detroit and Chicago areas. Some moved from here, and now they’re coming back and building homes costing in the $500,000 price range, on one of our lakes or rivers.” 

Matt and Julie additionally offer after-the-sale maintenance and supplemental work such as core drilling for adding a water purification tap, as well as repairs. “Sometimes I’ll get a call to go and look at damage for insurance claims, and give an estimate, but usually it’s due to something that the homeowner did, like drop a bottle or glass off the top shelf and chipping an edge. But I always tell them that a repair is a repair, and not a magic wand. Most of the time they’re happy with the repair. If it’s one of our customers, many times, I won’t charge them.” 

Addressing a Unique Set of Problems in Cold Country

Matt continues: “We can have summer days in the 90s just like anywhere, but in the wintertime we’ll have days that can be minus 30 degrees. So what we see–and it’s not every house that it happens in–because of the expansion and contraction of the exterior walls between summer and winter, cabinets will shift and cause seams to separate. 

“We have a customer (we didn’t do her granite, someone else did in the late 90s) who has a seam in her kitchen that I’ve fixed three times. It’s always the same seam and it always happens in the spring when it starts to warm and thaw and the frost heaves up the ground. There’s just something about that house, on that particular side, that moves when the sun shines on it. The last time I fixed it was five years ago, and it held for a quite a while, but I saw her a few weeks ago, and she said the seam has come apart again. The other seams along the interior walls have never had a problem.” 

The remedy? Well, first off, it really has to do with the type of construction and how the house was built. It also depends on the time of year that he puts the countertops in, Matt explained, adding, “If we install in the wintertime the house is going to move when the thaw comes in the spring — that’s just the way it is. We also secure the majority of our seams with silicone, which allows the countertops to flex with the expansion movement. We do epoxy some seams, but that is only in certain situations and when the customer requests it. Most people up here are fine with a silicone seam, but some folks that come here from the bigger cites want their seams epoxied.” If that’s the case, customer education and giving them the option is just part of installing in a unique and challenging environment, Matt says.

When templating an exterior wall that might shift, Matt pays special attention to backsplash length, but as for countertop seam placement, he uses as few seams as possible. 

“We don’t like to hack-up a kitchen with a lot of unnecessary seams. I’ve seen other companies do that, and it tells me that it was the only way they could cut the countertops without buying another slab. To avoid doing this, when I’m pricing the job or when measuring, I’ll price in another slab and explain why to the customer. If it comes down to buying more material, we will always buy more. That’s always been our policy. I always look at it as if it were my house and how I’d like it done.”

The Heart and Soul Of Mammoth Granite 

“The heart and soul of our company is the way we treat our customers and the way we treat our employees,” explained Julie Hoffmeyer. “A contractor once told us that it says a lot about you when your employees spend a lot of years with you and your relationship is good. If our employees aren’t happy, we are going to notice it on the jobsite. They’re always happy to come to work and always happy at the end of the day. 

“Another heart and soul reflection on our company is the relationship with our customers. We have repeat customers time and time again. They’re either building or buying a new home and they come right back to us. That’s a huge testimony to us. There is one house flipper that has used us three consecutive times. 

“What makes us different is our personality that comes across to our customers. Matt and I can usually just strike up a conversation, and we are more than communicative with our customers. They leave here feeling like they’ve made a friend, and that we are an important memory to their home. We don’t advertise heavily. It is strictly word of mouth that’s kept us in business for the last 15 years.” 

Matt continued: “What makes us different from our competitors, I would say, is our willingness to go the extra distance to find what our customers want instead of just saying, ‘This is just what we have’ or ‘This is just what we can get.’ We’ll spend as much time as needed, sometimes a week, with different material vendors to find what our customers want. 

“Additionally, we spend a lot of time paying attention to details such as seam placement and color matching. We hear all of these things from our customers — some who have had experiences from other fabricators. To us it’s not just about getting the job out the door. We’ll take the extra time to have the customer happy and satisfied at the end of the day. Most of the work we get is through referrals. People walk in the door and say that so-and-so told us about you, so we’ll put the extra effort into giving people what they want. We are very focused on customer satisfaction, and that’s the main thing. 

“When I was a brick mason years ago, an old guy told me, that it’s a thousand times easier to build a reputation than it is to repair one. Once you get a bad name out there, even if it’s not your fault, it’s almost impossible to fix it. Any job I do has got to be the best that I can do with the time I’ve got to work on it, and if the customer is happy, I’ll get more work down the road.” 

The Future

Matt: “This (granite) business, in this demographic, can only grow so much. There is only so much work out there and only three shops in the whole Upper Peninsula, that I know of, that are fabricating stone. Here, it’s a tough market just because of the population and average income. There’s not the kind of money here like there is down in Milwaukee, Detroit or Chicago. 

“That said, I probably would have had a bridge saw by now had the economy not tanked in 2008. We are still not back to even 50 percent of 2008. CNC machines are beautiful, but a bridge saw is one piece of equipment I will really consider in the future. The economy has got to get a little better to support it.” 

Julie: “A mom and pop business is basically what you can call us, and that’s the way Matt wants to keep it. We could try to get bigger, and there are things we could do to take the next step, but he doesn’t want to do that. 

“Every year for at least 10 years we’ve been involved with the Upper Peninsula Home Builders Association, which is affiliated with the National Home Builders Association. It’s in Marquette, Michigan, and every spring we’re in that show. Rarely do we get a sale on show day, but it does happen. Usually sales from these shows trickle back through the year. The way we see it, that one sale makes the whole three-day weekend worth it, for us. 

“So the sky is the limit. You never know where we’re going to be a year from now, but Mammoth Granite will be here for years to come for our community and the Upper Peninsula. We’re a little removed, but some people are attracted to that. We hope to continue the pace we’ve been going. I would like to see us grow a little bit, but that’s just me.” 

For more information about Mammoth Granite Inc., go to www.mammothgraniteinc.com .