True Blue Surfaces Finds Key to Growth Through Procedure and Analysis
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| Blue Bahia granite Island is the colorful centerpiece of this La Vaca Hotel Suites kitchen, with Silver Storm marble perimeter countertops as an elegant, neutral color contrast. |
by Peter J. Marcucci
Photos Courtesy True Blue Surfaces
and Bellezza Artisan Stone Surfaces
In terms of personality, every company is as varied as the person who founded or owns it. At last count there were 8.1 billion humans on earth, and when extrapolating this huge number and its infinite variables to its logical conclusion, not even one personality could ever be exactly the same, right? Likewise, not one company is exactly alike. For example: is the choice of style and image that the new owner wants for his or her new corporate headquarters traditional or contemporary, large or small, spacious interior or compact? Moreover, when the company is up and running, do the personalities of the team members align with the vision, goals and personality of its owner?
One final point: In the past, I’ve seen many stone companies that were owned by craftsmen who had all the right credentials to fabricate but, to their detriment, started out with little or no knowledge of how to navigate the complicated world of running a business. Conversely, I’ve seen stone companies founded by those whose skills were developed through attending accredited business schools. These folks came into the stone business world with a slew of tools to grow a company and must now learn the particular demands of stone fabrication. True Blue Surfaces is one of these companies. Its personality is one of accelerated growth through procedure, analysis and good business sense.
Building a Growth-Machine
The original True Blue Surfaces, located in San Antonio, Texas was founded in 2007, and acquired by Tom Callahan and Eric Cole in 2016. The two men came from well-regarded positions in the business world, bringing their years of business knowledge with them into a totally new challenge, recalled CEO and President, Tom Callahan. “I had spent fourteen years traveling around the world, running the different manufacturing and supply chain organizations that I was involved with. In 2016, I then decided it was time to go back and enjoy my wife and get reengaged with my kids and my life, so my friend Eric Cole and I bought True Blue Surfaces.”
Even though Callahan and Cole came to stone fabrication with no prior experience, it was their life experiences that gave them the tools needed to succeed. Yes, making things from stone is different than making things from metal or plastic, but it’s basically the same process – sort of – he explained.
“Since college, every company that I was involved with effectively required you to continually improve the product for the end customer. You always had to find ways to take costs out, be more efficient and improve your fill rates. So when Eric and I started looking for a company to buy, those were skill sets that were effectively tattooed into our brains from our prior experience in manufacturing consumer products, and we had to find a business that allowed us to do that.”
And they found one. They saw the same basic processes used to make consumer goods from plastic or sheets of metal, used in making countertops from slabs of stone. Machines that cut and shape were in their realm, both different, yet both the same. “The type of equipment is a little bit different, but the process of converting a slab of stone into a product is very similar to machining consumer products. There is a level of overlap, which then led us to a level of comfort, which then led us to how to sell to the big guys that are volume builders and are more corporate-driven.” Callahan and Cole pursued a strategy of making relationships with onsite builders and their purchasing people who managed housing developments. From then on, sales simply grew by word of mouth. “We could communicate in the same language with those folks, and it was an easy adaptation and a good fit for me and Eric, with only a couple of degrees of separation from where our core skill sets were.”
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Above: Powdermill development project features Cambria Brittanicca Gold wet bar, coordinated with chocolate-colored ceramic tile splash. |
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Building a Growth Machine by Serving Lucrative Markets
Since that purchase, Callahan and Cole have added three more fabrication companies to their roster, with locations in Austin, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama and a second location to serve San Antonio’s Hill Country. Historically, the company has focused on the wholesale builder market as a priority, because typically, when you’re working with builders, they value and reward predictability and efficiency, said Callahan. “Whether it’s the answers you’re going to get from our product management teams, our shops or our installers, we are extremely predictable on delivery, quality, and making our large scale builders successful.”
According to Callahan, the four markets they serve have mostly similar parameters. However, there are slight differences. “Pretty much all the market areas we serve are pro-growth, and a lot of the major builders are either in them or are entering them, so they are similar in that regard. However, the differences we see between Texas and Alabama is that the growth in Alabama is driven primarily by government investment. Huntsville, in particular, has some of the highest per capita Ph.D. rates, because of the rocket programs, and is exploding with the amount of government investments and necessary support organizations. In contrast, the Texas markets are driven by friendly private business investment policies and the great transportation networks that we have. Additionally, with San Antonio and Austin being only 90 miles apart, you’d think that they would behave like similar markets, but they don’t. The income levels in Austin are much higher than they are in San Antonio. So, the mix of products, builders and what’s driving them are much different, even though D.R. Horton, Pulte Homes and Lennar Builders are major players in both those markets.”
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Above: Bishop Pond development kitchen features White Macaubas quartzite island with waterfall edge and a farmhouse sink.
construction home.
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Procedures and Analysis Become the Keys to Growth
It’s truly remarkable how in just eight years, new owners with no prior knowledge in stone fabrication, can expand their market by acquiring viable companies in three key locations. That may sound quite difficult and risky, but not so much, explained Callahan.
“I firmly believe that our success is about having processes that create predictable results, and then getting people who are passionate about driving these processes. Both Eric and I learned the ropes at Motorola Semi Conductor, where we had a process for everything and got predictable results if you followed the process. It was fed into our veins, and we’ve taken our processes wherever we’ve partnered or purchased, and implemented those processes. We have great partners in our equipment and stone suppliers, and we’ve cultivated those relationships to make sure we carried them with us wherever we went. We are also big believers of being loyal to partners who have worked with us to improve us and helped us to succeed.”
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Bishop Pond master bath suite with marble double vanity, walk in shower and bathing alcove. |
Location is Also Key
With all four locations combined, 90% of True Blue Surfaces’ machines are from Park Industries. All of their shops are fully wet, and dry cutting is absolutely forbidden due to safety concerns, continued Callahan. “Our responsibility and obligation is to always make sure our 210 team members are put into an optimal situation to conduct their job safely. Anyone who works here, we want them to go home healthy, with all their fingers and toes and with no injuries, and we meet that objective every single day. Our people are caring and compassionate, and absolutely committed to doing it right and satisfying our customers. Everyone here is family, and there isn’t a better metric in the human resource space than hearing someone say, ‘I want my friend to work for this company, because I like working here, and I respect the team.’ They are great people, and make True Blue Surfaces what it is.”
As for materials, Callahan said that a small portion is brought in by quarry-direct containers and vendor containers. However, the bulk of materials are brought in by the job through local vendors. “Our material purchasing is really a blend of the three to meet our working capital requirements and our pricing requirements. We definitely leverage partnerships, so we make sure that the key vendors who give us great service get a healthy share of our business, even if it is container imported. We give preference to people that we’ve partnered with, who have demonstrated the same commitment to service our end customers as we do.”
In 2023, True Blue Surfaces produced 1.5 million square feet of natural stone, quartz and porcelain products. Solid surface countertops are also made available to their clients for one big reason, said Callahan. “If you want to do a lot of commercial work and you don’t offer solid surface countertops, you won’t be doing a lot of commercial work! There is still a ton of that being used in government, food and schools.”
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This Parade of Homes project features matching quartz counters in the spacious, light-filled concept kitchen and bath. |
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Callahan’s Closing Advice
“We are still growing organically, and we are looking at other markets to enter by acquiring or partnering with more companies that have a few criteria that are important to us. We will then bring our processes and control methodologies into those companies, build them, improve their quality and build their service. We do a lot of 3, 5 and 10 year planning, and look at various processes, equipment and procedures that we are doing, and sometimes say what we’re doing right now is not going to work with the way equipment or tooling trends are going. We will also be looking for people who are really good at what they do. As awful as it sounds, we look at the education system, and what types of people are available to us in the work force. If a kid comes out of high school, and they’ve been using their home computer to play video games or they are really good on Facebook, but they are not physically capable to work in a fab-shop, what do you do? So you better plan for it now, because in 2028, the work force is going to be very different than it is now. Plus the boomers are retiring, right? And we are going to have to replace their amazing skills. Where are those skills going to come from? The majority of kids today don’t want to work in a fab-shop or in a trade. So we do a lot of pre-planning to insure that we are doing the things now for what we expect in four, five or six years out. We’ve been quite successfully doing this so far, knock on wood.”
True Blue Surfaces is a member of the Artisan Group, the International Surface Fabricators Association and the Natural Stone Institute. True Blue Surfaces is also a longtime, loyal customer of BB Industries.
For more information visit www.truebluesurfaces.com .