Granite Countertops for Santa Rosa California & Arizona
Granite Countertops by Pennacchio
BY JEFF QUACKENBUSH
 SANTA ROSA – Pennacchio Tile Inc., which has tile-installation shops in Santa Rosa and Arizona, now can offer installation of stone slab countertops and other surfaces with the acquisition of Silver Creek Tile & Stone, also of Santa Rosa.
Leo and Wendy Pennacchio acquired Silver Creek for an undisclosed sum on May 12 from Phil Lopez, who started Silver Creek in 1996. The 10-employee slab fabricator will continue to operate under the same name, the same general manager – Steve Saddler – and in the same 6,000 square feet of leased space at 39 Maxwell Court. “I’ve been looking for seven years for a slab company,” said Mr. Pennacchio, 42. “We wanted someone who could handle commercial volume right away.”
Pennacchio hires slab contractors for countertops on projects such as hotel restroom, guest room and reception countertops, but the extra liability insurance needed to cover the subcontractors increased bid amounts. Pennacchio and Silver Creek worked together at the Carmel Valley Ranch resort in the Central Coast and restrooms at The Village at Corte Madera shopping center in Marin County, and Mr. Pennacchio found Silver Creek to be attentive to commercial construction schedules.
About 80 percent of Silver Creek’s $1 million in revenue last year were from residential projects, mostly custom homes and remodels. Conversely, more than that much of Pennacchio’s $6.2 million in revenue in 2007 was commercial work.
The plan is for commercial work to boost Silver Creek’s revenue to $1.3 million this year and double it in the next few years. Some of that additional revenue will come from greater use of and automation upgrades to the computer-controlled fabrication machine. It uses a 60,000-pound-per-square-inch jet of water to slice through granite, other rock and up to 6 inches of steel while allowing for precise carving to within one-sixteenth of an inch.
That precision could allow countertops to be made in Santa Rosa and shipped to far-flung installers.
Silver Creek also will position Pennacchio to get more work from large-scale housing builders once the market improves.
Stone-slab countertops and sinks are fast becoming a less expensive option for homebuilders and remodelers than foot-square rock tile and are becoming a standard feature in production homes and apartments.
That trend has brought more slab distributors and fabricators into business and prompted tile companies to start or acquire fabrication facilities, driving down prices and bids. For example, Dennett Tile & Stone in Rohnert Park opened a slab fabrication division in Santa Rosa nearly two years ago.
That price competition prompted Silver Creek former owner Mr. Lopez to diversify into carving of ornate limestone surrounds for fireplaces and other architectural features in recent years. In fact, he continues to operate that business as Silver Stoneworks.
Mr. Pennacchio’s father, Mike, founded the tile contracting company in Sebastopol in 1980, focusing mostly on custom homes and gradually more commercial jobs. An architect by training, Leo Pennacchio started working at the company in his youth and assumed leadership of the company about a dozen years ago and expanded the company to Santa Rosa. Seven years ago, the company opened a shop in Mesa, Ariz., also focused on commercial projects.
Collectively, the company has 50 year-round staff between the two locations, and sometimes installers from one shop travel to work on jobs near the other shop if demand warrants.
Al Stadt of Sunbelt Business Advisors in Petaluma brokered the sale of Silver Creek to Mr. Pennacchio.
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