Cambria's quartz surface delivers the natural beauty of stone with durability on par with stainless steel.

Granite and marble are popular choices for kitchen countertops, but without proper sealing, these porous materials don't always live up to their reputations. That's what Minnesota-based Cambria says sets its product apart from traditional stone. According to Ian Thorburn, director of brand management, Cambria's quartz surface delivers the natural beauty of stone with durability on par with stainless steel.

"The product itself is extremely innovative," Thorburn explains. "It's a very young and growing new product. We take quartz stones from rock salt size down to sand or talcum powder size. We clean, grade and wash it and recombine it into slabs. It offers significant advantages over stones that you quarry in slabs out of the earth. Our product is all natural quartz, but we create a slab that is completely non-porous and doesn't need to be sealed. Quarried granites and marbles are generally porous and need to be sealed."

Cambria's product has secured accreditation by the National Sanitation Foundation for use in commercial food preparation areas. As Thorburn explains, porous granite and marble risk harboring bacteria, but Cambria's quartz product can be used in kitchens with the same reliability and safety as stainless steel. "Our product can be seen in kitchens and baths," he says. "It's twice as strong as granite and our ability to fabricate unique pieces allows us to get creative. The possibilities extend beyond what you can traditionally do with granite or marble, which can sometimes crack during fabrication. This is a beautiful and highly innovative product."

The company continues to create new colors and finishes within the line, Thorburn says. In its Quarry Collection, Cambria creates natural variations in the color patterns for an authentic stone look. It recently introduced a honed finish for its new limestone color named Yorkshire.

Cambria's product also makes shopping easier for the customer, Thorburn says. "It's much more consistent than granite or marble," he explains. "If you go to the store and want to buy granite, they'll usually send you out to a quarry to pick out a slab because the sample at the store can be so dramatically different. They don't want the liability of you buying something in the store and getting something different. Our product is consistent enough that the customer doesn't have to do that."

Family Connections
Cambria offers a unique surface for food preparation and the company itself has roots in the food industry. Davisco Foods International, its parent company, has become one of the largest suppliers of cheese to Kraft Foods, after more than 60 years in business. It started with a small creamery in Minnesota and developed into a large manufacturing operation, with facilities now in Minnesota, South Dakota and Idaho, that supply cheese and food ingredients, such as whey protein, to major food and nutritional companies.

According to Thorburn, Davisco helped develop the technology to isolate whey protein as a result of its cheese-making experience. For years, whey was a byproduct of cheese making that was simply thrown away, he says. Davisco learned how to convert into a valuable, nutritional product. "It is a vertically integrated company," he says. "The Davis family also owns one of the largest dairies in Minnesota. They use that dairy to help show local farmers how to be stronger suppliers. They take a partnership approach to their value chain. We have the same partnership approach at Cambria."

In the late 1990s, the Davis family learned about the quartz technology that had been developed in Europe and fell in love with it, Thorburn says. Another company was working to bring the technology to the United States, but when it failed to do so, the Davis family stepped in and bought the equipment. It built what remains the only plant of its kind in the country, Thorburn says.

"We've been making and selling the product since 2001," he says. "We've been selling countertops, tile and wall cladding, all manufactured in our 150,000-square-foot facility in Minnesota."

Creating Opportunities
Thorburn says the company sells most of its products in the residential market, but is growing its commercial business. "The foodservice industry is starting to jump on board," he says. "We are working with a number of foodservice providers in colleges and within companies - places where people want a beautiful stone appearance combined with a safe, low-maintenance product."

The Biltmore Estate chose Cambria for one of its working kitchens and Land-O'Lakes selected it for its test kitchen, he notes. It is the title sponsor for Club Cambria at the Target Center, home of the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves. "This is a fantastic example of creative fabrication of our product," Thorburn says. "It's been a great partnership. We won an award for the best premium seat idea for 2004 from the Association of Luxury Suite Directors."

Cambria operates its slab plant in Le Sueur, Minn., and fabrication facilities in Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and Indianapolis. It works with more than 160 independent fabricators. "We have a reputation for a strong national fabrication and distribution network," he states. "Those fabricators sell to builders, developers, designers, architects, and kitchen and bath dealers. We've chosen not to distribute products through Home Depot or Lowes because we have a unique dedication to independent designers, architects, designers and builders. They're going to have a product and brand that's unique to them."

He sees growing demand for the product. "This category was nowhere on the radar screen five years ago," he says. "Now, it's a very strong category that a lot of people are starting to learn about and use. We continue to grow capacity to meet the exploding demand. It's a great problem to have.