It’s not often you come across a company known for a signature expertise that goes out of its way to minimize the use of that expertise in its projects. But that’s exactly what they do at Sticks and Stones Fabricating in St. Stephen, New Brunswick.
“We think we do a better job with deck seams,” says Andrew Ludwig, General Manager at Sticks and Stones.
“People in the industry and our dealers tell us our seams are great. Even so, we work hard to reduce the number of seams in a job. It sometimes takes more material and more people to do the installation, since the pieces are generally larger, but it gives the customer a much better countertop. It’s worth it to us if the customer gets a better job.”
A Lifetime Of Experience
The attitude of delivering a quality product first and foremost is one of the reasons for the company’s rapid growth since it opened its doors in 2007. Another is the breadth of knowledge and experience its founder, Tom McFarlane, infuses into the business. McFarlane grew up in the family’s monument operation, and then in 1989 he applied and expanded that knowledge by opening Sticks and Stones (Bermuda), which provides granite, marble, other natural stone and quartz surfacing for a very high-end Bermuda market.
In 2007, McFarlane returned to St. Stephen to open Sticks and Stone Fabricating, Inc. The company, which sells primarily to dealers in the residential market, has since grown to become the largest stone fabrication company in New Brunswick.
“We sell on three things: Quality, Service and Value,” Ludwig explains. “We have an automated shop, which supports our commitment to delivering a high level of customer service. While our prices are not always the lowest, we feel we return the most value per dollar spent. We think it is our service that gives us the edge.”
Taking Stone Into The Digital Age
Sticks and Stones relies on Moraware’s JobTracker to help the company maintain its favorable competitive position in the marketplace. “We use JobTracker for scheduling and quoting and are just now implementing it for inventory,” says Ludwig.
“We had a dry erase board originally, which is fine when you have just one or two items per day to coordinate. With growth, we find that we are constantly revising the schedule. With the dry erase board, if you have multiple items for each day, when you have to reschedule it means you have to erase the whole week and re-enter data. JobTracker eliminates all that and gives us complete control of our schedule, which is always changing.”
Looking forward, the company is investigating new markets for expansion opportunities. And to support that anticipated growth, it is also looking at adding more automated equipment to the fabrication shop. “We have grown every year since the beginning,” Ludwig says. “In order to sustain that growth, which is getting harder to do, we need to be looking at new and different opportunities.”
Want to know more? At Moraware, we make software for countertop fabricators. CounterGo is countertop drawing and estimating software. JobTracker is scheduling software that helps you eliminate the time you waste looking for job folders. RemnantSwap is a free place to buy and sell granite remnants with fabricators near you.
