Surface focus gets results

COUNTER CULTURE: Tracey Beck, general manager of KB Surfaces, is seen in the shop with Jose Vasquez, solid-surface fabricator. The Johnston-based manufacturer creates custom cuts of engineered or natural-stone countertops. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
COUNTER CULTURE: Tracey Beck, general manager of KB Surfaces, is seen in the shop with Jose Vasquez, solid-surface fabricator. The Johnston-based manufacturer creates custom cuts of engineered or natural-stone countertops. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Whenever Tracey Beck wants to be reminded of the skill of the workforce she manages, she can walk into a newly renovated Starbucks or a Dunkin’ Donuts.

The shiny-smooth, stone countertops, over which the lattes and decafs are served, are the work of her employees at KB Surfaces LLC. The Johnston-based manufacturer creates custom cuts of engineered or natural stone, while a related family business creates the supporting cabinetry.

KB stone counters are seen in bars, kitchens and bathrooms of restaurants, including P.F. Chang’s, Papa Razzi and Legal Sea Foods, as well as major retailers, hotels and banks, according to Beck, the company’s general manager.

The raw material that Beck starts with weighs thousands of pounds, and is stacked vertically in the KB Surfaces yard on Hartford Avenue. The small business, which employs about 20 people full time, works primarily with contractors and other companies who are assembling orders for large corporations, or for individual clients.

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About 60 percent of its work is commercial; another 40 percent residential. Ideally, Beck said, the company would switch those percentages to accommodate more residential work.

On a recent tour of the stone yard and production floor, workers for KB were polishing the countertop cuts for sinks that would end up in a hotel bathroom.

“We buy the physical slab. We cut them up and fit to specific projects,” Beck said.

The company sells throughout New England, but because its customers often ship the product to other locations, the end result is seen around the world, Beck said.

KB surfaces has expanded its range of countertop materials to include more than a dozen quartz stones, Silestone, marble, granite, slate and soapstone. In recent years, more commercial and institutional clients have been seeking green solutions, countertops made of recycled materials.

By focusing on a range of materials and options, KB Surfaces has been able to attract customers who are sourcing products for clients who may need a variety of projects completed. The customers are supplying counters and table surfaces to both commercial and residential locations.

“Instead of having 500 customers, I can have 100 customers and handle multiple products within their projects,” Beck said.

The business has invested in digital technology that allows employees to use a computer to design the specific cuts, then relay them to another worker who will make the cuts with massive saws.

Even through the economic recession, KB Surfaces continued to grow. It will move this summer into an 85,000-square-foot facility purchased by the Beck family in North Smithfield. The key to the family business has been making smart hiring decisions, she said.

“We don’t know it all. We don’t pretend to know it all,” Beck said. “What we do is hire people around us who have the strength and the knowledge in areas where we are weak. We hire people we can trust.” •

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