Feeling out the stone market in Florida

wiredog70 · Post by **wiredog70** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 10:20 am

I may be relocating to the Central Florida region. Tampa, Clearwater, Orlando area. Just wanted to get your feel for what the job and economy situation was like first. I have numerous applications in a stone shop. I have ran a Northwood waterjet, running and programming CMS Brembanna CNC's, Proficient in AutoCAD and Proliner, I have also been a shop manager over 24 ppl putting out 5-7 kitchens a day. Wondered what my chances would be of finding a job. Could be as soon as 10 months if job and pay was right. Let me know your expert opinion guys. Thanks.

Brian Briggs · Post by **Brian Briggs** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 4:35 pm

I am a sales rep for GQ in FL so I see a lot of shops. Business has picked up some over the last 4 months but most are aprehensive about hiring people. Lately, the Tampa area seems to be busier than Clearwater and Orlando.

scott m · Post by **scott m** » Tue Aug 17, 2010 5:40 pm

There are a million shops down here and if you are good on the CNC and stuff you should have no problem. I get plenty of installers and fabricators coming in but only two CNC guys in 4 years. We have a proliner and fabcenter, so if you get down to tampa or are gonna relocate here I would be happy to talk to you. I never know when I will have an opening. I don't have alot of turnover but I am always looking for the right guy.

wiredog70 · Post by **wiredog70** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 8:09 am

Thanks Brian and Scott. I will definitely look you up when I get in town Scott. Brian, do you know Matt Williams? He was my GQ sales rep out of St. Louis. Great guy and always willing to go that extra mile. I probably did 75% of my ordering from you guys. I figured worse case senario if I couldn't find something in the stone market I could always use my machining background and go cut some metal instead of stone. But I really enjoy making countertops and I sold all my tools from being a machinist. I really don't want to start that process over again!

Brian Briggs · Post by **Brian Briggs** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:28 am

Matt's a good guy. As Scott said, there are more installers trying to get jobs than CNC programmers and there are plenty of CNC's down here. I will keep my ears open for ya.