Tracey Beck loves to build things – especially businesses.
“I get to see so many projects come from concept to reality,” said Beck, co-owner of construction and manufacturing business, The Beck Companies. “I get to work with cutting-edge technology, and new and exciting products every day. I then get to see what our companies created in a real-world environment.”
Family-owned and operated, The Beck Companies serves as one of the largest wholesale fabricators of granite, marble, soapstone, engineered stone, and solid surface and case goods in New England. It’s worked on projects at Foxwoods, Patriot Place and Fenway Park. Beck’s husband, Brian Beck, and Brian’s brother, Ken Beck, are the company’s co-owners.
The company – comprised of wholesale residential and commercial custom-stone fabrication shop KB Surfaces, custom closet company Closettec, and commercial case work manufacturer CAS America – rebranded as The Beck Companies last year. The creation of the parent-company structure allows the family to continue its growth under a consistent brand message.
The business began a decade ago when the Becks purchased KB Surfaces out of receivership, adding Closettec in 2012 and CAS America in 2015. Since that beginning, the company has shown 15-20 percent growth every year. And they are looking for more, including through continuing acquisitions.
The new structure also makes way for more streamlining, as well as more earth-friendly, forward-thinking methods of lighting, heating and cooling, Tracey Beck said.
“This [rebranding] allowed us to coordinate all the company manuals, update all the websites and re-letter all the vehicles and really take advantage of all the synergies of the companies being in one building,” a new North Smithfield manufacturing facility and showroom that she hopes to have done by October.
The Beck Companies has renovated the new 85,000-square-foot facility to include state-of-the-art, energy-efficient lighting, heat and air conditioning. A covered storage expansion is being built on the side of the building to house additional stone inventory.
Despite the robust growth numbers, Beck says the business takes a quality-versus-quantity approach, focusing on retaining and growing specific key customers and cross-selling to them from all three subdivisions.
“We don’t want a lot of one-time customers,” Beck said. “We want a few customers who partner with us for mutual long-term profit and success. It enables us to control our growth, be flexible and not overpromise so we can hit deadlines and ensure quality while not exceeding our current capacity.”
Having worked for a large company for most of his career, Operations Manager Bobby Guadagnoli agrees, saying it has been a nice change to work for a smaller, family-owned business.
“We are very customer-driven,” Guadagnoli said. “We always try to meet the expectations and needs of our customers. They are continually working on growing and expanding the companies and will invest in them for continued growth.”
To that end, Guadagnoli says the company is always looking at new ways to help maximize and streamline processes.
“We recently added a new robot to add capacity to our stone cutting,” he said. “We have invested heavily in digital technology and are 100 percent digital, from template to fabrication.”
Recently, the company successfully completed three stores for the Wayback Burgers chain, finished a Metro Honda showroom renovation in North Smithfield, and is halfway through a large stone work build-out project for Yale University. Upcoming jobs include lockers for W.B. Mason and a large command center project for Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
“We have our eye on a couple of new acquisitions that will round out our current manufacturing platforms,” Beck said. “We are anxious to finish up construction on our building. We hope in the next three months to have the exterior of the building clad, signage up, landscaping done and, of course, finish up the showrooms.” •
