East Texas Business

By GREG JUNEK
Business Editor

Fire might have torn through a large portion of the building housing Granite Division Inc. a week ago, but company leaders said they had the company open again in three days, and business is not suffering.

Early on the morning of June 9, firefighters responded to the blaze at the company, on U.S. Highway 271 south of Loop 323.

Clay Clemmer, company president, said he did not have an exact estimate on loss of building and equipment, other than it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. He said the blaze was still under investigation.

David McCall, executive vice president, said he received notification of the fire later that morning. From U.S. Highway 271, the building looks charred, with windows, part of the roof and part of a wall missing. The showroom, break room, some of the work area and offices were heavily damaged.

But the fire did not destroy anything that could not be replaced. McCall said the building was insured.

Clemmer said the fire will bring about change for the better.

“We’re going to take this as more of a blessing than anything else,” he said, describing ideas for a new building layout.

Clemmer said the business was back open on Wednesday. It is continuing to manufacture its patented GraniteLoc products in a nearby facility and it is selling marble slabs under the trees in the slab yard in the back.

The building is actually composed of several connected buildings that were added over time by a previous property owner, and the front portion, which was built predominantly out of wood, was the section that was destroyed, he said. The remaining buildings can still be used.

Clemmer said the company will rebuild its showroom in the front, demolish the old accounting and sales office and put customer parking in its place and move much of the slab yard to the front for better viewing. He said the company might also move the manufacturing facility for its GraniteLoc product under roof at Granite Division to increase productivity and efficiency.

The fire did not cause any layoffs among the 54 employees, Clemmer said.

McCall founded Granite Division Inc. in Tyler in 1998.

In 2001 he met Clemmer, who was vice president of Lone Star Marble & Granite in Forney. A year later the two became partners in Granite Division.

Clemmer was instrumental in developing the GraniteLoc process, which fuses together granite and natural stone tiles during production.