Firm's success carved in stone

Kenneth Burnettes business supplying furniture production companies with plywood ended after a mass migration of the companies to China.

He decided to switch gears, buying an established company making custom countertops out of natural stone.

Last August, he bought Stoneworks Custom Countertops, a business that has been around for more than a decade that uses an elaborate computerized saw that cuts granite, marble and quartz to exact dimensions.

I was in plywood fabrication for more than 20 years, the Rocky Mount native said. As furniture plants began to shut down, my customer base began to disappear. I had to lay off 25 people and shut down.

Stoneworks uses a computer numerical control machine to slice the natural stone.

Some other companies carve out stone countertops with handtools in a garage, he said.

We have a $330,000 CNC saw. Its called a fabrication center, he said. The uniqueness of this company is that we create a digital file of the kitchen or the bathrooms, and that information is digitally transferred to the saw, so that the tolerances in which we operate are much tighter than without CNC equipment.

The countertops are made in Rocky Mount. His company serves Eastern North Carolina from Morehead City up to Rocky Mount over to Elizabeth City, with a sales office and showroom in Greenville.

That enables me to get business in Greenville, New Bern and Morehead City, he said.

His company has retained most of the employees who were working under the previous owner.

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Firm's success carved in stone