Slippery Rock Gazette

Peter J. Marcucci

Photos Courtesy Sambor Stone

Located in South Holland, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago, Sambor Stone’s roots can be traced to  the residential construction market during the 1990s. Initially, operated as First Choice Construction, and soon after, The Granite Place. It was these small but growing companies that set the stage for a new business destined to prosper in Chicago’s stone fabrication market, recalled Jonathon Sambor.   

 “My dad, Jan Sambor, was a residential home builder in north-central Chicago during the 1990s. The area was gentrifying with high-end homes, and dad was part of that. During that time, there was a shortage of stone masons, so dad and another individual decided to start doing the stonework themselves, creating a partnership. Soon after, my mom, Margaret Sambor, opened up The Granite Place, a strictly retail establishment geared toward stone fabrication in the residential market.”

Things were going great for the Sambor family well into the 2000s. New, modernized equipment was brought in to fill the demand, and success was on the horizon. That is, however, until the economy changed, explained Jonathon. “It was 2007, and I was 20 years old at the time that the economic crash happened. There was no work, so I set up Sambor Stone in 2008 as a way to get into the Mason’s Union. In Chicago, if you’re installing commercial work, you are required to be union. But our fabrication shop wasn’t, and it was a way of separating the two entities to be compliant with how commercial projects are done in Chicago.”

Sambor Stone Ltd. owners and crew. Sambor Stone Ltd.  recently hosted a Stone Fabricators Alliance event at their shop in South Holland, Illinois.

Accuracy Through Education

Over the next few years, fallout from the recession slowed but continued, and acquiring stone work was competitive, to say the least. A temporary change in plans was in order that would help to set precedence for a brighter future. “The economy was still turned off, and I didn’t do anything with the company for a few years,” he continued. “Instead, I went back to college and got my degree at the University of Illinois in Chicago, majoring in business management. I learned a lot of things in college, but most of all I learned that employees are the main staple of any business. 

“I worked in the shop throughout college, and then got involved with a rep firm that sold various products to hotels, which then led us to doing hotel work for construction companies and their subsidiaries. We were doing work that was too complex or too timely to be brought in from China, and we filled in the gap with those types of jobs. Then, when the Chinese tariffs came in, we created a division exclusively for producing hotel work.”

Above: Fireplace for the Sophy Hotel in Chicago’s Hyde Park.

Above, left: Ryan Navarrete programs  one of their OMAG Area Cut CNC saws. Above, right: Luis Gutierrez changes blades to suit the material on their second OMAG saw. Sambor Stone runs two Area Cuts and three Montresor edge polishers to keep up with their commercial and residential work.

Above: Part of the record-breaking SFA crowd visiting for the Demo Event.

Above: This residential project features a vein-matched waterfall island.

Above: Luminesce quartzite bar top, installed in the Hyde Park, Chicago location of the five-star Sophy Hotel

Above: Quartz kitchen with full-height backsplash defines Sambor Stone’s work: modern, functional and elegant.

Making the Cut

Divisions for doing high-end commercial work as well as for wholesale residential work were created, while contract cut-to-size work has also become part of the equation, said Jonathon.

“In the post tariff world, Sambor Stone has shifted our focus to the domestic production of cut-to-size countertops for the hospitality and multi-residential sectors. As we all know, this type of work used to be produced overseas, and it is always deadline driven, so when the opportunities to produce this type of work domestically presented itself, we needed to quickly identify a source for immediate access to large amounts of material.   

“To accomplish this, we’ve partnered with domestic quartz manufacturers like Daltile to secure up to 10,000 sf of slab material in a short period of time.  These partnerships have allowed us to deliver multiple large scale projects around the country, in a relatively short period of time, and that has helped us to build a reputation in that segment as a viable and cost effective alternative to our volatile overseas competitors.

“We are also doing a lot of light, medium and heavy commercial work in downtown Chicago that is either general contractor specific or through mill work companies, cabinet companies, kitchen and bath companies, builders or residential walk-ins. So we do a little bit of everything.” 

With momentum now fully in play, the facility that had begun life at 5,000 square feet, had transitioned to 25,000 square feet. 

The company uses a broad array of equipment that includes a Zonato Manual Bridge Saw, two OMAG Area Cut CNC Bridge Saws, an Intermac Top Master 655 five axis CNC,  an Intermac Master Stone 1500 CNC,  three  Intermac Master Stone 4000 CNCs, a Montresor Lola 800 Edge Polisher, a Montresor Luna 740 Edge Polisher, and a Montresor Vela 7.2 Edge Polisher. Heavy lifting throughout this high production facility is aided by a blend of  four overhead cranes.

According to Jonathon, sales of natural stone have fallen off considerably, with quartz taking a front row seat. Current trends in Chicago as well as the company’s huge coverage within the mid west and further, have driven quartz sales to an unprecedented high, said Jonathon. “Ninety-eight percent of what we fabricate is quartz, with the final two percent being natural stone.” 

Ultra-Compact  Dekton is also part of the Sambor Stone’s sales, albeit a small part, continued Jonathon. “The problem is that because of the nature of ultra-compact material, it takes longer to produce, and that holds up our equipment for doing other work. So when shops want to add the space and make the investment for equipment specifically for this type of production, it will take off. That said, the material is getting easier to work with, because the tooling is getting better, and when the material price drops, it will be an interesting dynamic. So how it plays out — only time will tell.” 

Resourcefulness is a Key Ingredient for Success

“What makes us special is our capacity output and quality,” continued Jonathon. “For instance, we were called in on a multi-unit project by a general contractor who had never built a multi unit before. They had purchased the material from China, and it didn’t come out correctly, and we had fabricated and installed 90 kitchens in three weeks on the jobsite. These were low-rise giants, and we were sending in tractor trailer loads and booming materials in through the windows, and saved the general contractor from being fined thousands of dollars for late damages. All this was going on while we were doing our hotels and residence jobs. Usually, the jobs that I deal with have giant problems, and the only way to fix a giant problem is with a lot of good guys and a lot of equipment, and another reason that we are looking to expand again.” 

 Jonathon went on to say that the company shop is a predominately wet with small dust collecting units throughout. “Safety for our people is number one, and we do everything we can to keep them out of harm’s way. At any one time we have 10 to 15 shop and office personnel, and 10 to 25 union installers.” 

Jonathon and company are also members of the Natural Stone Institute (NSI) and the Stone Fabricators Alliance (SFA). “In business, especially in this business, your people are everything,” he continued. “Having high-tech machines are great, but you need to have people that love the machines, and will check the quality of the work. So our most important lifeline in this business is our employees, and I believe that we have the best of the best. We are the highest-paying shop in Chicago and offer them the best benefits and a very safe environment. The NSI is a great resource, and offers an employee handbook that addresses many day to day issues. The SFA has also been a big part in the growth and success of our company, and why I felt obligated to hold a workshop last month. It’s like a big thank you to the SFA, and I was paying it forward. The attendees were anyone related to the stone industry. It was a huge success and broke all records.” 

Continuing the Momentum

“We are very lucky all the way around. We have the people and the infrastructure, and all of the variables that have combined to keep us working and growing. We started off as a retail fabrication shop, and then it turned into a high production shop. 

“That said, if we had stayed the course of a mom and pop shop, it was either branching off and selling cabinets or selling remodeling services. In our area, people want one-stop shopping, and the smaller fabrication companies in this area are going to have to fall into that category. 

“Additionally, the flooring and cabinet companies that also went into granite, are now able to take market share, because customers are coming in to take advantage of one stop shopping. I did not want to do that, because it would have been next to impossible to tap into the labor pool and get that many people who could specialize in that kind of stuff, and nearly impossible to grow. So we simply looked at where the void was, and saw the need for high production. 

“To summarize, in this business, in this area, we are not going to get paid more for what we are doing, and we are just going to have to produce more. Sambor Stone has the system for doing that, but these days it is difficult to find labor, so I’ve made the decision to go into an even larger-style production model for two reasons. The first is to give my people job security, and the second is that it’s a natural recruiting tool for us, because we have more to offer higher quality talent than our competitors. We are going to be putting in more equipment, and are looking at a CMS Brembana, and if we can buy it, we will be the first in the country to have one.” 

As for Jonathon’s parents, Margaret and Jan, they still play an active in the company, noted Jonathon, adding, “They are still in the shop, sometimes driving me nuts! But I know they enjoyed the recent SFA event. Even while playing host, it gave us all the chance to reconnect with a lot of people and suppliers in the stone business. Some of those relationships go back decades.”

For more information visit the website www.samborstone.com .