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The Beacon of The STone InduSTry www.slipperyrockgazette.net
Fox Marble – Time Tested, Time Honored
to follow: distribution or fabrica- tion. We chose fabrication, and we bought a bridge saw, then an- other saw, and by 1990 we were the first to go with an Intermac CNC on the west coast.”
During this first growth cycle, it was no easy ride, said McLaughlin, adding that growth capital was hard to come by. “The bankers would laugh at me when I went in! It was a long haul back then, nothing came easy, but I got lucky after working very hard during all those years.”
Spaces and People
Fox Marble and Evolv Surfaces have separate facilities located on an 80,000 square foot tract of land in San Francisco. The Fox Marble portion of the property houses offices, warehouse and a shop facility, all within 40,000 sq. ft. of buildings. According to McLaughlin, there is a slab gal- lery, but no real showroom to speak of.
That said, a newly acquired facility by Evolv Surfaces in Berkley, California will, in fact, have a state-of-the-art showroom, explained McLaughlin. The show room is beneficial because we will be able to sell out of it, and other area fabricators, design- ers, architects and builders will be welcome there and catered to by the Evolv Surfaces sales staff. Neither Evolv Surfaces or Fox Marble have designer teams. We rely on others to design the dreams of our clients. Sometimes those clients take hours and hours of time. It’s not unusual for our clients to have eighty book matched slabs in one bathroom. I cringe when I say that, because of the amount of time we spend with the shop drawings and the layout process. It’s not easy.”
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feBruary 2020 Volume 26.2
Fox Marble is one of the premier fabricators in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the division Fox Hensley ships projects throughout North America. Photo by Lawrence Lauterborn
And last but not least is the Fox Marble Stone Care divi- sion, a very successful unit that serves Northern California and Hawaii. This division has enor- mous growth potential. There are currently 12 field technicians and there are plans to expand sub- stantially this coming year. It’s important to note that all four divisions are separately managed and accounted.
The Nuts and Bolts
McLaughlin, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, graduated from Rutgers University in 1973. It was over a decade after his graduation that his true calling and love for natural stone would be realized, recalled McLaughlin. “It began in 1986. My family had moved here to San Francisco, and I had to do something to earn a living. I knew stone and tile from selling masonry products for Justin Industries in Austin, Texas. Soon after, we started marketing and selling pre-fabricated fire- places that we imported from Taiwan, Italy and Spain. In the be- ginning, I was cutting with a Skill saw on the ground with a can of water spraying the blade. It was at this point that we had two paths
Since its formation over three decades ago, Fox Marble has been on the cutting
edge, and has grown exponen- tially into a custom fabrication powerhouse under the watchful eye of its founder and President, Charley McLaughlin. Located in San Francisco, Fox Marble covers Northern California, and was recently made a member of
Evolv Surfaces has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, and Las Vegas
Peter J. Marcucci
Photos by Mark Ream for Fox Marble, Neolith®, Misha Bruk, Lawrence Lauterborn, and Henry Guerro
the esteemed Artisan Group. For those unfamiliar with the Artisan Group, it is an assembly of select fabrication company owners from specific locations around the country, who come together to share knowledge and solve problems.
But before getting into the nuts and bolts of the company story, there are some interesting facts that I learned from speaking to Charley McLaughlin.
Firstly, Fox Marble is actually one of four divisions of a group of stone-related companies. Evolv Surfaces, a second division, sells to fabrication shops, dealers and commercial installers all over the Western US and Hawaii. Evolv Surfaces also has office loca- tions in Seattle and Las Vegas. While Fox Marble is one of Evolv Surfaces customers, they get no
pricing preferences. However, they do have some advantage be- cause they have been fabricating Neolith for almost 8 years.
Secondly: Fox Hensley is a 50,000 square foot production facility located in Richmond, California, that produces fin- ished jobs for large accounts and ships products throughout North America.
Charley McLaughlin, founder of Fox Marble and Evolv Surfaces
Lawrence Lauterborn