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The Beacon of the Stone Industry www.slipperyrockgazette.net
Kitchen Creations, Inc. – 25 Years of Innovation
today, because we no longer do any solid surface work, or even get any calls for it.”
Staying In Control and Cost Effective
Kitchen Creations, Inc. is now celebrat- ing its 25th anniversary, with current sales being 80% quartz and 20% natural stone. The company produces approximately 3,000 square feet of countertops per month, serving an average radius of 80 miles from their shop in Deatsville, Alabama. New or remodel builders and residential walk-ins are the company’s main customer base, but they will occasionally fabricate light com- mercial projects when profitable. Most clients have been acquired over the years through word-of-mouth, and come from a healthy mix of income demographics.
“It’s a tough market here with some stone shops coming from outside of our market selling only on price, while we concentrate on quality and service,” said Culverhouse. “In our market, I feel we are one of the
February 2024 Vol. 30-02
industry leaders, offering the best quality and service possible at a fair price.”
Culverhouse is not a big fan of laminated or mitered edges that require gluing. It’s this one fact, alone, which precludes the fabrication of Dekton or porcelain, he said.
“I’m not saying we won’t fabricate these products, but if we are forced to, we will do what we’ve gotta do. We have a very efficient and profitable system for work- ing with quartz and stone slabs, and stay- ing away from glued edges that are labor intensive is a priority.”
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When Tony Culverhouse and wife Traci took ownership of Kitchen Creations in 1998, solid surface countertops were still popular. Kitchen design in ’80s and ’90s had seen to that, and their newly acquired company had its fair market share of sales in the Deatsville, Alabama area.
Early into the millennium, sales contin- ued to flourish. Nonetheless, changes were needed, recalled Culverhouse. “The previ- ous owners had been manufacturing their own solid surface sheets, and then fabri- cating and installing them. However, after deciding that we did want to stay in solid surface fabrication, but didn’t want to make our own materials, we began carrying man- ufactured sheets from Corian, Gibraltar and other various brands, and closed down the sheet manufacturing part of the company.”
by Peter J. Marcucci
Photos Courtesy Kitchen Creations, Inc.
However, the interior design clock was ticking, and time was slowly taking its toll on the popularity of solid surface counter- tops, while natural stone and quartz prod- ucts steadily gained momentum. Again, continued Culverhouse, it was time for a change. “We had been buying containers of Hi-Macs solid surface material from Mike Guthrie at NuStone in Nashville, Tennessee, when he introduced us to Caesarstone. I guess you could say that offering quartz is what got us into the stone business. If we hadn’t moved in this direc- tion, I don’t believe we’d be in business
machines, a Northwood SawJet,
Kitchen Creations’ 6,000 square-foot fabrication shop runs two BBM Paladin CNC
a Matrix Sebring bridge saw, and a Park Industries Fastback backsplash polisher.
Inset: A Manzelli lifter and overhead crane system help move material safely from saw to CNC.