This Barrie company puts
new meaning on getting 'stoned'
The headlines of this newspaper have recently announced
closings of two
Barrie manufacturing facilities. Jobs lost. Reasons cited. Re-employment
plans in place. Industrial adjustment people on site. It's news, sad
news,
and for sure many lives are affected.
But much more frequently we have in this city fabulous success stories
about
people who took a skill, added sinew and courage and sweat and built
an
enterprise. DiPietra Design is one of them.
For 20 years Jeremy and Christine Buck and a few very loyal employees
operated from a home based operation near Gilford. From that tiny space,
they used old techniques and built carefully a business in the supply
of
granite, marble, stone and slate for many purposes.
Alternative counters have seen an explosion in popularity. Floors,
reception desks, columns, building cladding, back splashes, door and
window
sills, fireplaces and tables make a definite statement when crafted
from a
stone product.
I think it takes an enormous leap of faith for a couple like Christine
and
Jeremy Buck to leave the manageable comfort of a steady business in
4000
square feet in Gilford and explode into much larger facilities of 15,000
square feet at Saunders and Welham Rd. Finding this building and making
enormous changes in the manufacturing end have occupied the better part
of a
year for the Bucks but they're used to taking their time and doing it
right.
"There's no point building a fancy showroom out front if we don't
have state
of the art manufacturing in the back to deliver what we say we will,"
says
Christine as she shows the plans for retrofitting the building.
As I walked through this operation this week, I was fascinated to see
photographs of incredible depths of marble and granite quarries in Italy,
Brazil, China and India.
The folks at Di Pietra (Italian for Stone) use brokers to purchase
their
slabs of product, all carefully numbered so that when laid down the
beautiful veins of colour and shape flow logically from one slab to
another.
Jeremy recently took delivery of a CNC (computerized numeric control)
machine that methodically cuts a variety of finish edges on stone, ready
for
installation.
The CAD operators work from on-site templates, developing mylar drawings
to
be superimposed on a slab so they come out perfectly shaped for the
location
they're heading into.
Di Pietra works with designers, architects, builders, kitchen manufacturers
and walk-in customers to supply the stone and make sure it's cut and
fitted
and finished with old world standards. The company has been built on
word
of mouth referral and articles in magazines like Canada Homes, Better
Homes
and Gardens have certainly helped. They've installed projects in England,
Caribbean, Russia, in embassies, and in buildings from Nova Scotia to
British Columbia.
After doing time in the spec room at Page & Steele Architects,
Jeremy
apprenticed in the early 80's as a marble mechanic on both commercial
and
residential projects, trained to fabricate and install stone using
traditional craftsman methods.
He's held on to this love of the job while balancing the demands of
growing
the company. It takes a huge financial commitment to make a growth move
like this and the Bucks are to be congratulated for their initiative.
Surrounded by huge slabs of granite, labelled with colour titles like
Verve
and Bufferly and Flash Blue and Red Dragon, Jeremy has trained his craftsmen
so the 15 employees operate as a team. They've used Georgian College's
CAD
training program, and also achieved training on edging and interior
cuts on
the new CNC machine to be able to decrease production and delivery time
for
customers.
There's so much more to running the business... doing quotes for many
projects in corporate settings, living up to their environmental commitment
despite lack of standards. Di Pietra has installed stone dust machines
and
continues to put emphasis on the 'back end' of the business. WMHIS
consultants are helping with safety standards.
Jeremy looks at it this way. "I don't have 15 people working here.
I have
15 families who depend on the success of this business."
Armed with orders to prove a long list of work, Jeremy went to the
Business
Development Bank of Canada to help with the growth of this operation.
Now
that the back end has neared completion, the team is turning its attention
to the front end... show rooms, sales offices.
Christine and Jeremy Buck are an example of people investing in our
community, building their business here while serving an international
customer base. This is a good news story and a company we can be excited
for.
Well done!
Thanks, Tammy. Thanks, Jeremy. And thanks, Scott Millson-Taylor, for
the
tour!
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