The grand opening of B.C. Marble Products this past weekend in Chemainus is sure to open up a wealth of ideas for people in their perceived use of an amazing stone.
Tom Smith and Steve Thorpe-Doubble are business partners in the venture and have already expanded their own horizons even before opening.
“We can really do anything,” said Smith.
“When we started the business, our business plan was just to cut slabs.”
In fact, initially, they thought they just might ship rocks out. But the acquisition of the right equipment to cut the rock themselves and the limited manufacturing within North America made them realize a much larger opportunity existed.
“If we’re going to invest in this, let’s take it to the next step,” Smith reasoned.
The grand opening goes was held over the weekend at the plant site at UnitA-9401 Trans Canada Highway on part of the former Nanoose Forest Products location and has been in operation for about a year, but they only started sawing recently.
The marble quarry is located on the West Coast of the Island in the Effingham Inlet area.
“This whole thing has been quite a process,” noted Smith. “There’s only a handful of marble quarries throughout the continent.”
Smith, 55, is a lifelong Cowichan Valley resident and most of his working career has revolved around logs. “I was essentially a log buyer for years,” he indicated.
“He’s gone from wood to rocks,” quipped Thorpe-Doubble, 58, a Chemainus lifetimer.
“Steve and I got into business logging,” Smith pointed out.“I’d go get the trees and he’d sell them,” Thorpe-Doubble added.
The two put their extensive backgrounds to use and found a new calling in marble.
“The further we got into it, we realized the best option for us was to manufacture our own product,” reasoned Smith.
Development of the quarry only started in November of 2015 and “we’ve only just started cutting rocks for the last three months.”
Their location for the plant perfectly suited their needs and held a bit of nostalgia for Smith since he once worked cleanup at the former Nanoose mill.
“It’s ideal on the highway, in and out,” noted Thorpe-Doubble. “Everything’s local here. It’s a real good location for us.”
They started with two employees in the quarry and bumped it up three, with two more people working at the plant.
The pair has already developed a couple of catchy slogans: “If you dream it, we can make it” and B.C. Marble Products “rocks your world.”
The West Coast marble is so unique the possibilities are indeed endless. The search for that exclusive item can lead to different types of products for signage, landscaping stones, stairs, marble furniture, interior products and exterior products.
Those products are showcased at the facility. Most come in square edge or live edge for a different look.
The star attraction is the CNC profiling saw.
“It is the largest you can get,” pointed out Thorpe-Doubble.
It provides the capability of manufacturing practically any shape or design, including curved stock for pillars and slabs to innovative architectural products for interior and exterior.
Quality slabs for kitchen and bathroom countertops and islands can also be produced as well as tile stock and wall cladding.
It’s interesting that even the equivalent of the “sawdust” from the rock is used.
“Soil guys can use it. It’s pure calcium carbonate,” Smith explained.
He hopes people visits the location “just to see what can be made out of stone. There’s no one doing this anywhere.”