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The Beacon of the Stone Industry www.slipperyrockgazette.net
Smokey Mountain Tops: A Brand Customers Trust
and had some features and benefits not found in Corian or other solid surface products. It also had some characteristics of granite, such as hardness. I knew it was a new market that some people wanted to get into, so in 2001, I researched it and found Cambria, and worked a deal to get a terri- tory from them, so that when we promoted it, we’d be the only one who had it.”
New Products, New Markets
As more brands of engineered stone entered the market, Smokey Mountain Tops eventually began representing names like Silestone, Caesarstone and Han Stone Quartz, to name a few, further diversify- ing the company’s offerings. However, in order to purchase, hold and sell this much inventory, a second fabrication and sales location was needed. The decision to rent
March 2024 Vol. 30-03
an existing building three hours away in Nashville, Tennessee was finalized, and a facility was up and running by 2007.,
Now jump to 2010, a time when a third and big change was in the works. Natural stone fabrication and local fabricators had gained a huge market share in the area, and it was again time to rethink the compa- ny’s position. Scott recalled, “As a com- pany in both Knoxville and Nashville, we had developed very strong relationships. I didn’t want to not be able to fully service our customers. So adding natural stone was truly a relationship-driven process with our customers.”
Smokey Mountain Tops caters mostly to mid- and high-end residential builders, retail clients, and kitchen and bath dealers and commercial builders.
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Smokey Mountain Tops recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. This premier fabricator of custom
residential and commercial surfaces has flourished by offering a diverse selection of solid surface, quartz and natural stone. With locations in Knoxville and Nashville, Tennessee, Smokey Mountain Tops is jointly owned by Todd Scott and Tim Scott, and is the outgrowth of the broth- ers’ past experience in the laboratory case industry – countertops and fixtures used in a laboratory environment.
Todd Scott recalls that many years ago, the brothers were commissioned by a large manufacturer to design a more stylish work surface, and things just blossomed from there. “The Eastman Chemical Company, one of the biggest chemical companies in the world, wanted a laboratory countertop other than black and with nicer esthetics. So we came up with an acrylic, polyester formula, and started pouring our own lab countertops.”
by Peter J. Marcucci
Photos Courtesy Smokey Mountain Tops and Greg Smits
In 1994, working out of a 10,000 square- foot building, the brothers decided to get out of producing lab countertops and into the commercial solid surface mar- ket to compete with the local distributors and fabricators of quartz, taking the com- pany in another direction. Scott explained. “We were now solid surface guys compet- ing against quartz and stone. At the time, quartz was a new product in the market,
Residential remodel: White Soapstone, with custom builder Forte Building Group, Nashville, TN Left, below: Custom Onyx sink for Blackberry Farms builder partner FE Trainer, Knoxville, TN