View of Pudong, across from Shanghai. 

Earlier this month, Marble & Granite, Inc. executives flew to Shanghai to visit the ColorQuartz factories and celebrate the New Year with ColorQuartz management. This visit follows Marble & Granite, Inc.’s first full year offering ColorQuartz to the New England area, which was a resounding success. The product is also well represented in California, Chicago, Miami, Texas, Utah, Washington, and New York City. 

Mark Ghassmi (Olin International), Paul Cocciardi and Gian Luca Fiori (Marble and Granite), Jemmy You and Kelvin You (ColorQuartz)

Owners Gian Luca Fiori and Paul Cocciardi traveled 16 hours from Chicago to Pudong airport 50 miles outside of downtown Shanghai. They rode a Mavleg train, which sped into the country at 400km/hour, arriving downtown in only five minutes. Home to 24-million inhabitants, Shanghai is full of massive skyscrapers. The latest, Shanghai Tower, stands 126 stories high and will be finished later this year. The pair visited the Shanghai Financial Center, which is an impressive 100 stories high. Just like any busy city, the traffic is abundant, and exceptionally slow at rush hour. Even though it’s a booming, chaotic metropolis, the pair says that the city is very clean, organized, and navigable. 

The Bund, Shanghai

The group visited the three different locations of ColorQuartz. The closest two factories are also the oldest. This is where all of the company’s “cut-to-size” work is done. The factories are well organized and produce over 11,000 kitchens for the U.S. west coast market. The third factory, located in Suzhou, is the newest. It’s where the export slabs are produced. 

ColorQuartz Suzhou Factory

Both Fiori and Cocciardi were impressed by the efficiency and cleanliness of the Chinese factory. “We already know that the quality of ColorQuartz is impeccable since we’ve sold over 4,000 slabs with very few defects,” Fiori explains. He adds that the advantage of working with a factory in China is significant since it has several quartz quarries. Besides creating quartz surfacing, China has an industry that consumes quartz for other types of products such as phones and solar panels.

There are many suppliers of quartz, however ColorQuartz distinguishes itself as the leader for the American market since the owner, Mr. Jemmy You and his family, have been living in the United States for more than 35 years. “They understand our market requirements and also understand how to work well with China. They understand the culture of their employees and run a very efficient and dedicated organization.”

The group toured the residential units supplied for the workers, noting that while the whole process is strictly supervised, the employees have use of kitchens and living quarters, which are really quite impeccable.

Jemmy You, Gian Luca Fiori, Paul Cocciardi, Kelvin You, and Mark Ghassmi

The Marble and Granite team also had the pleasure of meeting over 80 managers at the annual company dinner. Fiori noted, “Everyone was very happy, dedicated, and having fun—all while having a large amount of respect and admiration for their leaders.” 

Gian Luca Fiori, Jemmy You, and Paul Cocciardi

At Marble & Granite, Inc., we’re very proud to offer ColorQuartz surfacing. Over the past year, we have recuperated most of our sales and have enjoyed offering our customers a great product with lots of marketing support. Thanks, in part, to our work here at Marble & Granite, the market now recognizes the value of ColorQuartz. In fact, once upon a time, the word “quartz” brought to mind one brand. Thanks to advancements in quality, production, design, and more, ColorQuartz is now part of the conversation, becoming a name synonymous with the general term “quartz.”

We look forward to many exciting things coming up in 2016, including a winning selection of new colors. If you’d like to experience ColorQuartz for yourself, visit one of our two New England area showrooms . Our seasoned surfacing professionals will gladly show you why ColorQuartz is an excellent choice for countertops and more. Give us a call at 877-39-STONE.