Giving up the business his family founded and operated for 57 years, Mike Johnson recently sold National Quarries LLC in San Marcos for an undisclosed amount to see his vision realized.
As a result of the quarry’s sale to La Jolla businessman John Petterson, the quarry will continue running instead of becoming another area for development. The quarry is also getting new equipment, more staff and plans are in place to extend sales nationwide, which wasn’t feasible before.
The deal was negotiated by Hobie Fletcher, who is now president of National Quarries.
There are no plans to change the name of the quarry since it has a long history and “a lot of goodwill” attached to it, Fletcher said.
As more contracts are sought, the quarry is in a state of transformation as changes take place and management settles in.
Although he is retired, Johnson still acts as a consultant for the business, and he knows that the two men in charge have granite in their blood.
Fletcher and Dan Gray, the operations manager, are both doing what they love and are looking forward to taking their granite to markets beyond the borders of California.
– Uncommon Business
Has Unique Status
Sitting on top of 210 acres, National Quarries is one of three granite quarries in the state and the only one in Southern California.
It is also one of a few dimensional quarries in the nation, which means that it can produce huge chunks of imperial blue and Palomar black granite. The stone is very dense and hard and slabs can be used for many things, such as building materials, monuments, scientific instruments, and art.
In fact, the quarry’s granite was used for the California Center for the Arts, Escondido and other Downtown San Diego buildings.
Although the quarry can produce many block sizes, the preferred block weighs about 23 tons and measures 10 feet by 4 feet 6 inches by 5 feet 10 inches, Fletcher said.
While finding large pieces of dark-colored granite is rare, Fletcher said he is surprised no one other than developers was really interested in the property.
The property has hundreds of millions of tons of granite, he said. Although they will only dig about 120 feet into the ground, it is believed the stone reaches into the earth for a mile , enough for hundreds of years of work, Fletcher said.
– A Look Back And
Another To The Future
This should be enough for Fletcher and Gray, who are interested in the quarry’s future.
Gray has been with the company for almost 23 years. He started in the quarry in 1978 making $3.50 an hour, which was pretty good money then, he said.
At the time, Gray thought he would only be there for six months, but he still wakes up in the morning looking forward to the day’s work ahead.
With hopes of retiring with the company, Gray said he became operations manager when the quarry changed hands. He was hesitant about his new boss, Fletcher, but “things are changing for the better now,” he said.
Remembering the old times when the quarry had no phones, electricity or bathrooms, Gray said the new owner has the money to make changes, such as the purchase of new equipment.
All the employees have received raises, the company has monthly staff lunches, new equipment is being purchased, and morale is on an upswing.
The changes are part of the vision Fletcher said he shared with Johnson, the former owner.
Like Johnson, Fletcher grew up in a granite quarry. Although his family has been in the business for 125 years, Fletcher is the only one from his generation who has stayed in the industry.
Hailing from Massachusetts and working in quarries across the nation and in Quebec, he started learning the business when he worked for his father and the H.E. Fletcher Co., which was sold in 1985.
An avid surfer, Fletcher is happy to be in San Diego County and to have found National Quarries. Upon learning it was for sale, Fletcher negotiated the deal between Johnson and Petterson.
Although Petterson is very interested in the quarry and its future, Fletcher has full reign of the business.
“It’s a dream come true for me,” he said.
As a granite wholesaler, Fletcher is mostly interested in the sales and marketing of the granite and hopes to go out on the road soon to market and sell the granite to prospective buyers, but for now the focus lies in production.
With about $1 million in annual sales, Fletcher hopes to increase the figure to $6 million within the next two to three years.
The company is purchasing two state-of-the-art diamond-wire block saws, which employees can program. The saw can run by itself day and night, Gray said. Each saw costs about $200,000 after installation, Fletcher added.
Another small diamond saw will be installed along with an automatic polishing line that can polish 10 slabs at a time. The old polishing line could only polish one slab, Fletcher said.
The new machinery uses less power and water, is more efficient and much safer than older equipment, he said.
“The more machines, the more we can sell,” Gray said, adding the changes are long overdue and happening quickly.
As a wholesaler, Fletcher said he wants to increase production and expand sales to a national level. The quarry has nine employees right now and five should be added by the end of the year, he said.
Right now, the quarry’s bread and butter lies in the monument side of the business, which includes gravestones or markers. A 300 percent increase in this area is expected, he said.
Fletcher also intends to take full advantage of government projects, many of which specify that only U.S. granite be used.
This is especially true for veterans’ memorials, which he believes should only be made from American products.
The quarry will also market its “unique boulders,” or large eggs of granite, to artists and sculptors. In addition, Fletcher wants to increase the product line to include landscaping products, small building work and other items.
He is already looking at selling a stock of small blocks of granite to the tiling industry, he said. Although Gray said the quarry can’t keep up with orders right now, the many new ideas and the new equipment are expected to change that in the near future.
