Obama says bring manufacturing back to the United States!

We loved watching President Obama speak tonight on the State of the Union. We took away many key ideas and thoughts, but most important for us were his bullish comments about bringing manufacturing back to the United States. The speech was certainly controversial, but for leaders what decisions are rarely ever purely consensus driven. President Obama believes, and we agree, that it is vital to the successs of our economy and the longterm survival of the United States to have a strong manufacturing base.

President Obama boldly stated that the blueprint for our road to recovery "begins with American manufacturing...So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed."

As a US manufacturer of ceramic and glass tile, we're making every effort to take Obama's challenge to heart. Last year we added 3 manufacturing jobs, and so far this year another 2 already. These are jobs that pay at least 30-50% above minimum wage, with an opportunity for benefits after an initial phase in period. Initiatives such as tax benefits for small business or manufacturing companies that Obama talked about are crucial to our ability to keep growing, and we fully support any and all of his goals. 

Of course we also loved hearing him talk about education and illegal immigration reform, but in truth we believe it all starts with American workers and American manufacturing. Thank you President Obama for making manufacturing such a central part of this years State of the Union.

For a full transcript of the speech click here.

Looking to add a little more sunshine to your weekend?

This Saturday, January 21st, Mosaic Artist Delaine Hackney will be teaching a hands on instructional mosaic making workshop at our Fireclay Tile Boneyard. $80 gets you all the tools and tricks to designing a winning garden mosaic!

Visit Delaine's website to register for this weekends workshop.

Questions? Call Dearsy, our showroom diva at 408.275.1182 (or email dearsy @ fireclaytile.com)
between 9am and 5pm Tuesday through Friday

Can't make it this weekend? That's okay, check back in with us soon for the 2012 schedule of mosaic workshops!

The Fireclay Tile team recently had the opportunity to visit Kelly Moore Paint in San Carlos, CA. Just like so many people think all tile is made abroad, we thought the same of paint and we were surprised to find one of the most successful paint manufacturers so close to us in the Bay Area. After visiting the Kelly Moore website, we disovered that not only do they manufacture locally, they are also known for having one of the most sustainable plants in Northern California. We thought Fireclay Tile had a very sustainable manufacturing operation, though aftrer our visit to a true expert we realized we have much to learn!

Kelly Moore's plant manager, Keith Hussinger, was kind enough to invite us for a visit, so the entire leadership team and manufacturing managers joined Keith for an inspirational tour of Kelly Moore. But first, a bit of history from the kelly Moore website:

History: Kelly-Moore is one of the largest employee-owned paint companies in the United States. A leader and innovator of waterborne coating technology, Kelly-Moore was the first major paint company to offer recycled paints along with the large selection of colors and decorative sheens. Trusted and preferred by professionals since 1946 as the “Painter's Paint Store” for its high quality, performance and consistency, Kelly-Moore's paints are safe and easy to use for everyone. Kelly-Moore has three strategically located, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in key markets: San Carlos and Sacramento, Calif., and Hurst, Texas (outside Dallas). Its reputation for quality products is unsurpassed in the industry. The company produces some of the most technologically advanced paint products and sets the industry standard for new product development and quality control. Kelly-Moore has over 150 retail stores in seven states: Arkansas, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. Kelly Moore has 1,500 employees.

Sustainable Manufacturing: Its main environmentally friendly manufacturing facility in San Carlos is the recipient of five widely recognized green business awards from the State of California and San Mateo County for outstanding efforts to reduce pollution and solid waste and conserve water, energy and other natural resources. California is well-known for having the toughest regulations and inspection processes in the country. Kelly-Moore is proud to have received prestigious awards including the 2009 Large Green Business of the Year award by San Carlos Chamber of Commerce and it is a San Carlos Certified Green Business, California State Assembly.

The Tour:

Keith hosted 5 of us on a full 1.5 hour tour of the Kelly Moore facility. Here's a photographic recap of what we learned!

Air Compressor: Keith pointing out a new air compressor system that has saved the company a tremendous amount of energy. He said it had a 40% per year return on investment! This proved to be a common theme  in our tour - Kelly Moore has recently invested a lot in new manufacturing technologies to reduce energy consumption and save money! 

BBQ Pit: We loved this, as we love our Fireclay Tile BBQs!

Raw Material Storage: We were so impressed by how clean and well organized everything at Kelly Moore is. Their raw materials are extremely well kept, seperated by material, all clearly labeled on pallets. It gave all of us a good idea of how a larger company manages raw materials.

More raw material storage. Not a speck of dust on the floor...literally!

Paint Mixers: Keith next showed us mixing vats. These each hold something like 55,000 gallons of paint. Many of these vats are new and recent purchases, and Keith credits this investment in better vats as allowing them to keep up with the development pace in the paint industry for more eco-oriented paints.

Paint being mixed live!

Super Sacks Recycled: We learned that Kelly Moore recycled everything, or everything that they can. An example are super sacks, which they keep well stacked and organized to be used later. Ramiro, our Factory Manager, was taking a lot of notes at this point!

Signage and Quality: We saw many examples of signs like this throughout the factory, speaking to Kelly Moore's values and history.

Quality Control: The QC department at Kelly Moore checks each and every paint made across a huge number of variables. This ensures that every batch made meets their very strict quality standards, and there is a team that is solely responsible for this. 

Stocking Colors: Something interesting about Kelly Moore is they are one of the only paint companies to make stocking colors, whereas most other paint companies use pigments you mix in the paint store. By making stock colors like this, Kelly Moore ensures any paint you buy from them today they will make exactly the same way in 5, 10 or 20 years. Their paint never goes out of style!

Technology: This is another example of technology at work - each valve directs what paint ingredient goes where 

Waste Watre: Kelly Moore reclaims all water it uses to clean its paint mixers. This is a huge initiative for them, and one they have received tremendous recognition for. These vats of waste water then get used when making the next batch of that same paint color, also saving them money. Each waste water vat is labeled by paint color, and organized perfectly just like everything else at the factory. 

Waste Reduction: Keith told us that in the past 6 years they have reduced their garbage by 85%! That is incredible. They actually were smart enough to go find other local companies to retool their machinery to reprocess and recycle some of Kelly Moore's waste. Unbelieveable smart!

Inventory Management: Kelly Moore recently went through a large Oracle implementation and they can now track each and every paint can throughout its entire operation. It is truly impressive.

This was a picture of the damage from the Loma Prieta earthquake at the Kelly Moore paint factory. Literally paint everywhere!

Dust Collector: Kelly Moore replaced a HUGE dust collector with one much smaller shown here. This had huge economical advantages, as well as environmental for its staff.

Robotics: Keith pointed out certain robotics that Kelly Moore had spent about $1.5M on. He said in its first year the new "toys" saved them $1.3M, not even counting the safer work environment for their staff.

Robotic arm at work lifting paint cans and pallets.

Paint fill line.

The Kelly Moore facility is carbon neutral. Very impressive!

That concluded our tour, and as you can see it left us with a really tremendous impression of Kelly Moore, their paint, and their commitment to a better environment. As a small manufacturer, Fireclay Tile has a lot of work to do to keep up wtih larger companies, but seeing Kelly Moore thriving while doing the right thing gives us even more motivation to keep making improvements.

Next time you are looking for paint, we highly recommend Kelly Moore Paint!

Each week this year we're going to try and spread the love amongst the Fireclay Tile community to our fabulous Dealer Showrooms around the country.

This week, grab your cockroach killers because we're heading to Austin, TX to House+Earth, Austin's locally owned and operated green building materials store!

At House+Earth you'll find everything from Fireclay Tile's Debris Series, cabinetry, flooring, countertops, paints, and sealants, natural clay plasters, LED lighting, and non-toxic cleaners. House+Earth carries unique, artisan crafted products, and a strong commitment to human health and the environment.

Zach House, Co-Founder/Owner opened House+Earth along with Scott Kuryak. The duo felt that there was a great need for a green building materials provider in Austin and Central Texas.

FCT:  How long have you been in the tile business?

ZH:  We've been open and operating out of our first House+Earth Showroom for 19 months now. We're a green building materials showroom so we don't focus solely on tile but we do have interior designers on staff that help customers with their tile designs every day. Our designers really love working with Fireclay.

FCT:  Why do you carry Fireclay?
ZH:  Our initial decision to carry Fireclay was driven by our love of the color options and by Fireclay's focus on recycled content and sustainable operations. Since we've been in business I've gained a great respect for how Fireclay conducts their business. When I source products now, It's not only the product we evaluate, it's the way the company does business i.e., are they reliable in their lead times and consistent in their product quality? Fireclay is one of the standards that we measure other companies against.

FCT:  What are some of your Fireclay favorites?
ZH:  Lea, our head designer, loves 2"x8"'s and her favorite color is Nautical. We have a really great sample board in the Ogee drop in Mint Satin and Dark Chocolate that I really like.

FCT:  What is your favorite/most memorable install?
ZH:  Probably my most memorable install is when we had a customer order her kitchen backsplash (roughly 100 s.f.) in 17 different colors of 2"x2" tile. You can probably imagine that a lot of back and forth on the colors and amounts took place. Thinking of this reminds me that we never saw the final product- I'll have to be sure to request some pictures.

Visit our Dealer Locator page, to find a Fireclay Tile Dealer near you!

Head over to our become a Fireclay Tile Dealer page, if you'd like to join great companies like House+Earth as one of our Dealers.

2011 was an incredible year for Fireclay Tile and our team. We thought we'd take a moment to remember some of our accomplishments

- Customers: We added 20 new dealers to the Fireclay Tile family. From Boston to Florida to Texas to Washington, these included both some amazing new tile showrooms as well as some great green building supply stores. And we were able to increase our sales to our dealers by 73% in 2011 over 2010, something we are extremely proud of and worked hard to achieve.

- Orders: We completed over 1400 orders this year, ranging in size from one piece to over 5,000 square feet. We completed 208 Crush glass tile orders, and 1,217 ceramic tile orders. Out of all of these orders, over 85% were completed on time (a 15% improvement over 2010)

- Employees: We started the year with 27 full-time employees and are ending the year with 33 full-time employees. We added 5 FTE's to our San Jose team, and 1 to our Aromas team. We hope to hire even more in 2012! In addition, for the first time in 2 years we were able to offer raises to our production team and small holiday bonuses to everyone.

- Customer Service: Over 90% of our customers had an excellent experience with Fireclay Tile in 2011. Our goal is 100%, so we have some work to do!

- BBQs: We take our BBQ very seriously at Fireclay, and in 2011 we celebrated good times with 4 BBQs. This was flat to 2010, and one stat we want to improve!

-  Sales: For any business, sales are extremely important. We ended 2011 with a 5% increase in sales. Most exciting is that in Q4 we saw a 2-3x increase in order volume, and we are starting 2012 off with a healthy pipeline.

- Product Launches: We launched our new Crush 100% Recycled Glass tile line in May 2011. We surpassed our sales expectations, and have a production team in place that is making absolutely beautiful glass tile. We are aiming to double our sales in 2012.

- Press: We had some unbelievable press this year, capping the year off with an Honorable Mention for Crush in Interiors & Sources. We had over 32 press mentions, not counting the numerous blogs, tweets, and Facebook posts.

- Samples: We shipped out over 1,222 samples to various customers throughout the country. That's almost 6 samples each and every day!

- Email List: We grew our email list by 25% in 2011.

- Web Traffic: Our web traffic increased almost 2x in 2011 over 2010. We are planning for similar growth in 2012, with many new website updates already in the works!

- Social Media: We are ending the year with 462 Fireclay Facebook fans and over 600 Fireclay Twitter followers. We are planning some great social media campaigns in 2012, and our goal is to see these numbers each hit over 10,000 in 2012.

We have so much planned for 2012, including new products, new marketing ideas, and new sales and customer service initiatives. We can't thank you, our customers, enough for your commitment to Fireclay Tile and all that we do. You make work fun each and every day!

Paul and Eric, Owners, Fireclay Tile

Today I had the opporutunity to visit with one of our favorite customers. What was different is that this customer serves food - and the food is quite delicious. I'm talking about The Melt, one of the hottest restaurant concepts of 2011. Started by Jonathan Kaplan of FlipCam, The Melt's goal is to be the premier quick served grilled cheese and soup destination. After my experience today, I can say they are well on their way. Plus, we love The Melt because they were our first customers of our new glazed thin brick line (Launching January 2012)

My wife and I visited the The Melt Embarcadero location and were immediatley impressed by 4 key things:

1) FAST SERVICE: For a holiday week in SF, it was super crowded, but the line moved really quickly and very efficiently.

2) COOL ORDER SCREEN: After ordering, we saw our name show up on their "order board" which was super cool and something I'd never seen in a restaurant before. We knew exactly  when our food would be ready!

3) SODA FOUNTAIN: I love a good fountain soda, and The Melt's fountain soda machine is totally unique and serves delicious Diet Coke.

4) GLAZED THIN BRICK: We may be biased, but we think the glazed thin brick in The Melt looks spectacular!

[Photo: Facebook, New Montgomery Location]

My wife and I dined on The Mission and The Classic and enjoyed every last bite. We will definitely be back!

- Eric Edelson

Fireclay Tile has been fortunate over the years to be specified in over 100 high traffic grocery stores and many restaurants and food prep areas. In 2010, we have produced tile for already two grocery stores with several more being worked on, as well as numerous restaurants. Grocery stores include Whole Foods Markets (San Jose, Fairview, Huntington Beach), Metropolitan Market (Seattle), New Frontiers (San Luis Obispo), and New Leaf Market (Capitola).

Debris Series Recycled Tile in the seafood section of United Supermarkets, Texas.

Designers and architects on these projects specifiedFireclay Tile for many reasons including:
 

Color: At Fireclay we offer over 230 standard colors available on a variety of clay bodies. Our Debris Series Recycled Tile is by far the most preferred, not just due to the high recycled content, but also because of price and size availability (as small as 1x1 and up to 12x12 with everything in between). This range of colors, as well as the ability to specify a custom color or tweak and existing shade, allows grocery stores to truly showcase their brand and create an eye-catching environment worthy of their beautiful meats and seafood.
 

Durability and Longevity: Simply, our tile is the highest quality, most durable ceramic tile on the market.
 

Price: Our tile is handmade to reflect “Old World” styles, yet our ceramics technology is advanced and scalable, allowing us to provide pricing that fits company budgets. We will never be as cheap as Dal Tile, but because of the flexibility, customer service, customization, and responsiveness the price quickly becomes affordable, and in the long run due to our high quality and durability, the investment produces far more positive return due to increased customer purchasing. Without naming customers, we have had stores leave us to specify a less highly regarded product in a store, only to come back and admit their mistake and tell us how the lower quality tile actually produced a drop in sales.

Debris Series Recycled Tile featured in Whole Foods - Custom Pizza Oven -Portland, OR

Ease of Maintenance: Tile is a preferred wall and surface covering because it lasts forever (just ask the Romans) and it is so easy to maintain. It cleans well, allows for no bacterial growth, and will stay beautiful for years.
 

Enhanced Product Presentation: The beauty and flexibility of Fireclay Tile enhances the look of grocery stores and restaurants. Ceramic tile is very familiar to customers, and that comfort and ease translates into more sales for stores. With the ability to diversify color selection to really make a statement, different sections of stores can be further enhanced and the customer can better associate surroundings with taste palletes.
 

Code: Universal building code requires certain materials for food prep areas. Ceramic tile is an easy fit and satisfies food code in any of these environments. Furthermore, with reduced regulation around color index requirements, grocery stores can do so much more with tile to enhance their surroundings. When compared other materials that meet code, the design flexibility weighs heavily in favor of tile.

Debris Series Recycled Tile featured in Whole Foods - seafood section with custom mural. -Portland, OR

As you can see, we think highly of our product, and if you don’t believe us just check out our notable installations. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us and ask for more information.

One of our newest Fireclay Tile Dealers, Q-Tile and Lighting in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida openened it's doors two and a half months ago with ten differnent lines of tile.

Suzy Accola, Owner and Designer, took a few moments to chat with us about her reasons behind choosing to pick up Fireclay Tile.

Owner/Designer, Suzy Accola in the Q-TIle and Lighting Showroom.

FCT: What prompted you to open Q-Tile and Lighting in Santa Rosa Beach?

SA: I moved here four months ago from Wisconsin, and saw a need for quality artisan tile in the area.

FCT: Why do you carry Fireclay?

SA: I love the shapes, colors, and the fact that it's handmade vibrant tile, my clients love the colors available and the fun shapes too. Building Green is a passion of mine, and after becoming a licensed Green Consultant it became even more important for me to choose vendors who not only make an envirnonmentall friendly product, but have sustainable business practices as well.

FCT: What are some of your Fireclay Favorites?

SA: Right now, it's the Paseo shape in turquoise and the larger tiles in the Crush line.

FCT: What is your favorite, or most memorable install?

SA: We LOVE color at Q!  One install was pretty exciting as it was a dining room floor and kitchen floor.  The cabinets were robins egg blue.  We went with 4 colors of 9 inch arabesco floor tile: robins egg  blue, vanilla, light yellow and sage green.  The kitchen transitioned into vanilla and robins egg blue 10 inch square tiles to form a pattern.  There was a BIG moment when we all were scared if the color/pattern combo could be overwhelming.
Luckily for all of us, it turned out to be a beautiful, eclectic and cheerful kitchen/dining room!  In fact, it won a space in the tile company's latest catalogue!  We can't wait to be in Fireclay's!

Having said that, we take our selections seriously, but like to take risks.  So far, they have really paid off!  We absolutely love the color pallet and array of design options we have with Fireclay.

If you are in the Santa Rosa Beach,FL - stop in and say, "Hi" to our firends at Q-Tile!

If you would like to become a Fireclay Tile Dealer, please visit our become a dealer page.

Recently InteriLife, one of our great dealer showrooms in Colorado Springs, Colorado sent us a kitchen trasnformation that they just completed using our Express Series quick ship 3x6 field tile in Moss. InteriLife provides sustainable materials, natural products, & design for a healthier green lifestyle.

Our Express Series ships in one week and comes in six contemporary colors, and like our Debris Series the Express Line features over 62% recycled materials (including post-consumer waste), is made in California, and qualifies for numerous LEED points.

Here is what the kitchen looked like before it met Fireclay...

After...

InteriLife used our Express Series Quick Ship 3x6 field tile in the color Moss.

If your kitchen could use a little refreshening, check out our Dealer Locator to find your nearest Fireclay Tile Dealer Showroom.