Renovations are taking place at Lesher Natural Stone, Quartz, & Tile! Anyone who has stopped by our facility the past couple months will have noticed changes being made throughout our shop and showroom. One of these exciting renovations is the new bridge saw that will be installed at the end of November.
It’s at times like these that we are reminded of our beginnings here at Lesher. Our old bridge saw was installed in our shop when our building was first being built. Frank, Randall, and Brian Lesher travelled to Italy to pick it out when they decided to turn what had been a garage business, quite literally as they operated out of Randall Lesher’s garage, into a full fledged business. Back then all of the best machines for fabricating granite and marble were coming out of Italy, I am sure this surprises no one. The brothers travelled to companies like Simec, Breton, Brembana, Bavalone, and Intermac before making their decision. Like now, Frank and his brothers were looking for certain qualities in their bridge saw and vendor. Company reputation, years of experience, reliability, sophistication of technology, customer support and overall construction of the equipment were just some of qualities important to them. They wanted to be sure that they got the best of the best. Since the saw they chose, a Simec, is still running fine 23 years later, I have to say that they chose well.
A photo of Frank Lesher and his brothers in the parking lot of Lesher Natural Stone, Quartz, and Tile.
Though our company has grown over the years, some things never really change. Frank’s list of qualities when he started researching a new saw are one of them. He wanted a quality piece of equipment that had all the sophistication of today’s technology from a company with years of experience. Some of the companies he looked at were familiar from his last experience like Brembana and Breton while others were new; Park Industries, Banatone, and Sasos. There was no trip through Italy this time for the brothers but they did take a motorcycle trip to Florida with Frank’s son and daughter to conduct research at the stone convention, Coverings. This time around Frank chose a Breton, a company that met all of his conditions.
Frank, Randall, Brian, Luciano, and Alexia Lesher in Savannah, Georgia on their way back from Florida.
With the saw chosen we could begin making room for it in our shop, which is more easily said than done. First we had to clear out space for the saw, which meant moving around a lot of inventory. While this was happening Luciano Lesher drew blueprints for where the saw would be installed, like Frank had done for the first bridge saw. When a space had been cleared and the blueprints were finished Frank brought in Scott Thornton, a general contractor and the man who had built the foundation for the first saw. Since Scott did such a great job with our last saw he was the first person Frank thought of when we had to do it all over again.
Scott Thornton and Ethan Rawley standing where the saw foundation is being built.
This whole process has been a huge reminder of just how much of a family company we are and how much we value the relationships we build with our clients and business partners.
Our saw just arrived, in pieces, last week on the day before Thanksgiving.
The first of two deliveries!
Ethan Rawley monitoring things from above.
We had quite the crew helping to unload it; Frank Lesher, his son, Luciano, Todd, our office manager, and Ethan, the son of Frank’s childhood friend. Frank’s brothers Brian and Randall also stopped by to lend support throughout the day.
Frank Lesher guiding the fork lift.
Frank, Luciano, and Ethan
Frank and Luciano bringing the first piece in for a safe landing.
Look for photos of the fully functional saw on our Facebook page!
