Slippery Rock Gazette

Peter J. Marcucci
Photos Courtesy European Marble Company and Peter Marcucci

Born in Rome, Italy, in the late 1940s, Joseph Lubrano, like many of the children of that era, was born with an un-stoppable nature to succeed. You see, growing up in a post WW2 economy wasn’t the easiest thing to do. And to do well, people had to push themselves. Italy, as well as a slew of other European countries, was still rebuilding, and opportunities weren’t that plentiful. What was plentiful, however, was beautiful marble.  

European Marble’s 6,000 square foot showroom includes a complete, functional wine bar, a wide selection of stone samples and many tasteful vignettes both inside and outside the showroom, including tile, paving and flooring.

Sculptures made with the same Statuary, Venatino and Carrara marbles that we as fabricators, carvers and masons build with today, were abundantly visible from the centuries of famous Renaissance and Baroque artists such as Michelangelo and Bernini. An economy hungry for revenue was now gearing up to produce quarried blocks for carving, fabrication and dimensional applications, and the chosen few of the post-war generation looking to make his or her mark in the world of art were now empowered. 

One of the chosen few was Joseph Lubrano, now President of European Marble Company, located in Sarasota, Florida. “When I was eleven years old, I would go to school and then go to work,” recalled Lubrano. “In Italy, we had a school apprenticeship program, and at that time I was an apprentice in the marble industry. I learned how to cut, polish and chisel stone, and carving became my forte. In Italy, every year on May first, there is a consolidation memorial, and for many months prior to this, I had been carving a lot of tombstones that included names, angels and crosses. That was while I was age thirteen to fourteen.” 

An architectural sampler of dimensional stonework and paving includes a wood-fired pizza oven.

Sufficient Drive Will Take You Where You Want to Go

Over the next few years, Lubrano continued carving and finished his apprenticeship. Looking to continue honing his skills, he then attended a well-known art school called Artisich Industr (Artistic Industry), where he learned architectural drawing, sketching, and the sculpture of stone and wood. By the time he was 19 years old he had completed this phase of his education. He was now a master mechanic, and had all the skills he needed to come to America and succeed. 

“Coming to America was the best decision I ever made,” continued Lubrano. “But at the time, the type of work I had been doing in Italy was not the same type of work being done here. I had been doing staircases with sculpture, and also windowsills, but no sinks or countertops. When I came to Sarasota trends were beginning to change, but stone fabrication as we know it now really didn’t exist, so I mostly worked with tile, and cut stone. Then, in 1968, somebody asked if I could do a fireplace for their client. This was on Bird Key, and I showed the designer and architect, Jim West, two samples of marble. One was White Carrara and the other was Travertine, and when he looked at them, he said to me, ‘What the heck is that?’ but he agreed to let me do the fireplace for $275.00. So I went to Miami, picked up the stone, finished it in my backyard and installed it, and that’s how European Marble Company got started.” 

One commission led to the next, and Lubrano was now going to Miami quite frequently to pick up slabs, bring them back to Sarasota and fabricate them, he explained. “What got me though those days was determination. I was very determined to succeed, and I believed in myself because I knew the industry and the business. I knew from doing sculpture that I could cut marble with a chisel and polish it by hand. And talk about hard working! I used to get up at 3 a.m. and drive to Miami where I would cut my slabs, and return at 1 a.m. the next morning. Then, a few hours later, I would unload the truck and get to work shaping and polishing.” 

By 1971, Lubrano had rented a small space (where European Marble is still located), and began looking for a few people to hire and teach the trade. One was a very young Emir Joanides, who is still with the company 38 years later. All production at the time was coming from a track saw built by Gaspari Menotti, explained Lubrano. “We used this saw to cut everything, including miters. We would make one cut, and turn the slab to make another. 

“Everything else was then done by hand. Slabs were also unloaded by hand off of our truck using pipes to roll them onto A-frames.”

Fast-forward to the mid 1980s. Sales had grown, and the company now had a radial arm polisher and a Terzago bridge saw on order to fill the demand. They were on their way to becoming the area leader in high-end fabrication. 

Above:, left The European Marble showroom is one of the more unique showrooms we have visited. It is filled with vignettes, samples of countertops and even architectural masonry, feature walls and even a vaulted roman arch. Above, right: A custom floating mitered vanity with floor to ceiling feature walls of Zebrado marble.

Current Moving Parts  

European Marble Company presently has four buildings, situated on 80,000 square feet of property. The facility consists of an elaborate 6,000 square foot showroom, an 11,000 square foot warehouse, a 29,000 square foot slab yard, and a 12,000 square foot open but covered fabrication building.

Equipment consists of two Terzago bridge saws and a GMM bridge saw, a Terzago radial arm polisher, two Intermac CNC machines, and a Montresor profiler and polisher. For the safety of the company’s thirty-five employees, two dust collectors and a Fraccaroli and Balzan water treatment system are strategically placed. Custom layouts are an everyday occurrence and very necessary, said Lubrano.

The company’s high- and mid-end market extends mainly from Tampa to Naples, Florida, and northeast as far as Ocala, Florida. That said, European Marble has gone the extra mile (miles, actually) to fabricate and install for their clients who own second homes throughout the Northeast and Midwest. 

“We have a lot of competition, but 90 percent of our competition does not have the experience and scope of services that we offer,” continued Lubrano. “Working from a drawing, we can make furniture, sculpture, kitchen tops, and anything imaginable, while other shops just cut the tops, polish the edges and install it. This is the market we are facing here, today. 

“But the most critical thing is that it really brings the market down. The market that I established years ago was a good market, but because other people want to go into this type of business, they may give a cheap price today, but won’t be in business tomorrow. We, however, still have the same clients that we had thirty-five years ago. We are still at the forefront of the high-end market in the Sarasota area, and the most prestigious designers are using us, because we have the expertise, we do a good job and we deliver service. We have never, never, never walked away from a job saying we won’t finish! We get it done, and we get it done professionally.  We know what we are doing, and we can perform at the right price. We accommodate the clients, get them to trust us when they first walk in, and if they leave us and go down the road and that company cannot answer their questions, that client does not feel comfortable, and will often come back to us to meet their expectations. 

“Moreover, when Emir and I go to the jobsite of a perspective client, and they are explaining to us what they want, we sketch it out right then and there, and we’ve already sold the job, right then and there, because they are so excited! This scenario happens over and over again, and nobody in this area can match us in this way. Nobody! And this is one of the things that makes us unique.” 

General Manager, John Stewart commented,  “One of the biggest things that keep us competitive is the abilities of our craftsmen. Many of them have been here for thirty to forty years, and they have more knowledge than any of our competitors. Our craftsmen, like Todd Boley, can make anything that you can think of, and all of us have a good imagination to design things that are different and unique. We also educate our clients when they walk in, and this is where our experience comes in. We are not here just to sell the client a product; we are here to educate them and sell them the right product for their application. I would challenge anyone to design a better product than Emir Joanides or Jackie McCormick.” 

One of the things that Lubrano and company did beginning in 1987 was to bring in their own containerized inventory. Lubrano would visit quarries in Italy, Spain, Turkey, China, Israel and Brazil to hand select the finest materials, so that clients could actually see their slabs instead of just a small sample. “Our inventory grew to a very large point and to what it is now, continued Lubrano. “It’s amazing! I love to look at marble! To me, every slab is a painting. Our slabs are always the best that I can find, for the best price, with the least stress cracks, and when we furnish a client, they get the most uniform and most unique slabs available. This allows us to charge a little bit more, because nobody else in this market has them.” 

 European Marble Company has always done its own slab installations, while subcontractors install tile exclusively for the company. As for sales ratio, 40 percent is engineered stone and porcelain, and 60 percent is natural stone. From Clearwater and Tampa, and south to Naples and everywhere in between, all are within the company’s everyday market, with a small percentage of sales throughout New England and the Midwest. 

European Marble serves the high- to mid-level market in Tampa, Naples, to northeast Florida, from its base in Sarasota. Two Intermac CNC machines, three bridge saws and a Montresor profiler/polisher head their shop equipment line-up. Two dust collectors and a Fraccaroli & Balzan water treatment system help make a safe fabrication environment.

European Marble Company started bringing in container-loads of stone in the mid-1980s. Serving a high-end market means having some of the finest stone available to offer their clients - like the slabs in their slabyard, and the feature walls displayed in their showroom.

A Harsh Lesson Through Hard Times 

“While making our way through the recent “great recession,” we had to cut back expenses and had to work smarter and harder, and we got through it,” continued Lubrano. “We were not producing as much as we had been the years before, so we kept our best people and the people who had been with us the longest, and our expenses were less. We also had to adjust our prices, too. There were still clients with money, but they were not spending their money very easily, so we gave a little bit of discount to get us through those times. Fortunately, most of our clients were high-end and still had spending power, and we could continue to do business.” 

Stewart commented, “It was tough. There were a lot of times that we didn’t think we would make it, but we still kept a good attitude, got up every morning and worked hard, and we got through it. We also had a lot of inventory on hand that had already been paid for, and we tried to sell what we had in stock. The other thing that helped us out, honestly, was our showroom. Clients with big projects would come in the door thinking, here is a big company that is still here; do I want to give my work and deposit to this company that will still be here, or do I want to give it to a little company that has only been in business a short time and may not finish?” 

European Marble Company, headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, is approaching its 50-year anniversary in the stone business, and currently employs a full-time staff of 35. Their material sales ratio is 40 percent engineered stone and porcelain, and 60 percent natural stone. Owner Joe Lubrano: “I would like to see natural stone sales come back to the level of the old days, and I believe it will, because of its beauty and prestige. There is no comparison. I still say that every piece of stone is a painting. I will always look at it that way, and nobody can ever duplicate that.”

Above: Lubrano in his showroom, and circa 1967 as a young sculptor.

A Lifetime Company and a Company for Life

When a person signs-up to go to work for European Marble Company, they, unbeknownst to them at the time, are signing up with a company that will keep them for life, no kidding. “It has always been this way and always will,” said Lubrano, adding, “This company grew because of the right people I trained. They were very dedicated to making this company work. Emir Joanides has been a huge asset, and been with me from the beginning. My son, Joe Lubrano Jr., has been with the company for over 30 years, and handles the commercial accounts. Our shop foreman, Richard Kneriem, has been here for almost 30 years, and John Stewart, 30 years.  And talk about our shop people! They are the ones who step up when it’s so busy that we are challenged to keep up, and work the extra hours.   

“Last year I bought a new boat, and took the management team to Key West where we stayed in a rented house. I had the best time in my life having them with me. Furthermore, our spontaneous pizza parties are great, and our Christmas parties are even greater. I always do good things for my people, because without them, I wouldn’t have a company. They are my army and my family.” 

Above: A 200-year- old fountain carved in the round from Carrara marble graces the exterior courtyard of their showroom.

Above, left: This vignette of a wet bar in the Eurpean marblr showroom is also a vertical water feature. Above, right: One of the picturesque dimensional stone displays in their showroom includes a mosaic floor and vaulted arch – straight out of an a restored archaelogical site from Italy.

Closing Thoughts from Joe Lubrano

“I don’t want to grow the company; the structure is already here. I do want to fine polish the company; I want to make it better. Professionalism for me is very, very important. I want to look better for the public and the clients. I also want to buy new machines, so we can perform a little bit better, and want to improve my showroom and offer more selection for a better price. 

“I would like to see natural stone sales come back to the level of the old days, and I believe it will, because of its beauty and prestige. There is no comparison. I still say that every piece of stone is a painting. I will always look at it that way, and nobody can ever duplicate that. When John and I go out of the country to buy material, we don’t buy Santa Cecelia or Giallo Veneziano. Everybody’s got that. No, we buy material that has some blue or some green; something  unique that no other shops have. We’ll go anywhere we have to, and take the time to find it. ” 

For more information, please visit www.europeanmarble.com .