A counter spin on added value.

Centis Tile in Sudbury develops a high-end market for granite products

On any given day Dennis Centis is as likely to be found explaining to customers how clean the bathroom tile grout as he is operating a huge, $100,000 diamond-drill stone cutter in the backroom of his factory.

It is a simple range of skills that illustrates the flexibility needed to get ahead in his business.

The hard-surface floor business, incorporating tile, stone and terrazzo, is a complicate says, but he and his partner have had to be flexible to turn their small, local tile business large exporter of stone and tile products.

Besides the simple tile products found in bathrooms in Sudbury, the company now sells custom-made counter and table tops into the United States for upscale residential and commercial installations.

Centis says it is work he could not have dreamed of doing a few years ago. The company has come a long way since its creation in 1953 by two Italian artisans and brothers.

Dennis Centis, along with cousin Rob Centis, purchased the business from their fathers five years ago. Since then, the cousins have seen the use for tile and stone in Northern Ontario increase dramatically, and have watched their business grow into the largest such distributor and installer north of Toronto.

Dennis credits the increase to local architects and engineers for making better and more creative use of tile and stone products in some of the biggest construction projects in Northern Ontario.

"It's a culture shift," Centis says. "These are recognized building materials everywhere in the world, but not always here. People just don't always think of using them."

Centis Tile has been involved with virtually every large project in the Sudbury area for the past several years. Projects include the new YMCA Centre for Life, the Willet Green Millar Centre and Brenda Wallace Reading Room, both at Laurentian University, and the Sudbury Regional Hospital, currently under construction.

"We've been able to do some very creative work lately, the kind that shows off the skill and materials that are available here," Centis says. "And it shows that work done in Sudbury is as good as anywhere, and more people want to take advantage of it."

The increased demand for tile and stone led to a few jobs installing stone countertops. With the help of some international contractors the cousins had worked with and the weak Canadian dollar, they have been able to export their products to homebuilders throughout Michigan.

"The jobs call for very high tolerances, since no two are the same," he says. "Our ability to work from measurements and templates, without even going to the job site, is our strength.

The company recently received one of the most prestigious awards in their industry -- second place in the 2000 Hard Surface Award given by the Tile and Terrazzo Association of Canada. That award was presented for Centis's work on the John Rhodes Community Centre in Ste. Marie.

The company also won an engineering Golden Trowel Award for pouring the flattest concrete floor possible for MCTV in Sudbury in 1993.

Centis says the company also has high hopes for an award or two for the YMCA building it completed earlier this year.

While the cousins have watched Centis Tile and Terrazzo grow remarkably in the past few years-- it now employs 30 unionized tile setters -- they have maintained the local presence established by their fathers.

The cousins also operate North-Tech Stone and Ceramic Inc., which is among the largest retailers of commercial and household ceramic products in Northern Ontario. North-Tech employs six people, including their wives, keeping the family tradition alive.

And while North-Tech does not generate the revenues that Centis now does, the cousins agree it is as important to them.

"Every customer is important to us," Dennis says, "big or small, or whatever they need. Being able to meet any need is what got us this far, and we won't stop now."