[Note: This was written as a Guest post for the Coverings Blog, but we are also reposting on our own blog]

Fireclay Tile is excited to be attending Coverings 2012 in Orlando, Florida from April 17-20th. Fireclay Tile’s mission is to produce the most beautiful, durable ceramic products using sustainable manufacturing processes and recycled materials. We are innovators and actively engaged in developing new ceramic technologies while preserving “old world” methods. We focus on both the residential and commercial markets, and we would LOVE to meet with you at the show.

To take you back a few years, Fireclay Tile was established in 1986 by Paul Burns, our Chief Ceramicist. His Uncle, Chester, owned Stonelight Tile, one of the early California tile manufacturers. Since its inception, Fireclay Tile has been at the forefront of innovation in the ceramic tile industry. Some of our proudest moments have been switching to all lead free glazes in the 80's, inventing our Debris Series Recycled Tile in the 90's, and in the past two years launching Crush, our 100% recycled glass tile line, and our new Glazed Thin Brick line crafted from 30-100% locally reclaimed earth. We are scavengers at heart, and we are constantly looking around our local community for new waste streams to up-cycle into our products. Sustainability is just part of our DNA, and we couple it with amazing customer service focused on supporting our customers’ success. And we make everything that we sell right here in the USA!

At Coverings 2012 we will be showcasing our entire line as well as highlighting a few NEW products and collections including:

Crush 100% Recycled Glass Tile: The most eco-friendly and cost effective recycled glass tile produced in the USA. Crush is available in 40 colors in both gloss and matte finishes in 17 different shapes and sizes. Click here for our Crush 100% Recycled Glass Video.

Glazed Thin Brick: In partnership with California's oldest brick maker, Fireclay is launching 9 stunning glaze colors on a 30-100% reclaimed earth brick body. Glazed brick has never looked so good! Click here for our Glazed Thin Brick Video.

The Runway Collection by Kelly LaPlante: Come see 4 new designs by Kelly LaPlante for Fireclay Tile, all inspired by runway styles!

The White Collection: Come see Fireclay's take on white!

We are also extremely proud of our enormous Decorative Tile offering, including handpressed and handpainted decorative tiles. We are particularly passionate about our Cuerda Seca tiles, as we are one of the only to do a multicolor wax resist tile made 100% from our own materials in the USA.

Fireclay Tile has worked tirelessly to expand our national and international Dealer/Showroom network, and in 2011 we added 20 new showrooms throughout the US. We are a 26 year-old U.S. manufacturer, and in the past three years have completely revamped our business to focus on our core principles of sustainability and customer service.

We have a private meeting room (#2611) in the TCNA pavilion and we'd so very much like to meet with you. To set up a time, please email eric @ fireclaytile.com and find out why over 93% of our customers rate their overall experience as exceptional. We know you will love working with us. Plus, we make a killer margarita!

Our Vice President, Eric Edelson, will also be presenting at Coverings on Tuesday, April 17th and Friday, April 20th about How to Market Your Showroom Online. Both sessions are at noon, and we’d love for you to stop by and pick up your FREE Guide to Marketing Your Showroom Online.

Feel free to reach out to our ceramicists with any questions you have by checking out out the Fireclay Tile website, and we're also on facebook and twitter!

This past week I had the fortunate pleasure of visiting Colorado to meet with one of our newest customers, Decorative Materials. With showrooms in Denver, Edwards (outside of Vail), and Basalt (outside of Aspen), this family owned company covers almost the entire state. 

Each of the 3 showrooms are prime examples of beautiful tile showrooms. Featuring over 200 vignettes, it is clear that Decorative Materials cares not only about inspiring its customers but also in showcasing each of the tile lines it represents in truly a unique fashion. During my time in Basalt I had the pleasure of meeting Margot Hampleman, the founder and owner of Decorative Materials. She told me that she started her company as a small 10x10 store in the Denver Design Center over 20 years ago. My how times have changed, and today Margot oversees a staff of over 10 across 3 locations and services high-end residential and commercial customers all across the state and beyond. Stories of tile entreprenuership like Margot's are the ones we love to hear!

Decorative Materials is one of Fireclay's newest customers, and they will be initially showcasing our Debris Series Recycled Tile and Crush 100% Recycled Glass tile in each of their locations. Each and every person at Decorative Materials is extremely nice and knows tile very well. A visit to any of their showrooms is sure to inspire each of you!

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

Fireclay Tile is thrilled to be participating in a Dwell Media Event in honor of the Junior League of San Francisco. Attending the event will be top San Francisco and Bay Area designers, along with several manufacturers showcasing their modern collections.

Fireclay will be on site showing ourf our Crush 100% Recycled Glass tile as well as a new glazed brick product we are soon to be introducing!

Join us this weekend for this exciting event!

Fireclay Tile was present last night as Treehouse unveiled itself for the first time to its friends, family members, and some key vendors. First off, let me one of the first to say that what the team at Treehouse has built is incredible. It's a beautiful, 25,000 square foot store that will serve all homeowners and builders needs. From beautiful tile to paint to equipment to planting supplies, they have it all!

TreeHouse will carry a wide range of carefully selected merchandise including paint, floor and wall coverings, kitchen and bathroom fixtures, cleaning supplies, storage and organization options, solar power products plus a wide range of smart-home technology solutions that will allow customers to run their houses or businesses more efficiently. Most important, or so we think, they will have the most beautiful, ecofriendly tile on the planet - Fireclay Tile!

The store is beautiful, and when you walk in you know this store is going to be different. With a movie-theater stereo system carrying great tunes and a staff full of knowledgeable, friendly folks, you will receive great customer service while having a lot of fun!

Treehouse's display fo Fireclay is not to be missed. Featuring three vignettes and a huge selection of beautiful color boards and concept boards of our Debris Series Recycled Tile, Crush 100% Recycled Glass Tile, and Express Series Quickship Tile, you will see the best of what Fireclay has to offer.

Crush 100% Recycled Glass Tile

Debris Series Recycled Tile

To learn more visit http://www.treehouseonline.com or better yet head to the store and check out all that they have to offer!

Last week we had the honor of attending the opening launch party for Ciao Bella Gelato's remodeled Ferry Building location in San Francisco, CA. In the Spring Ciao Bella solicited Fireclay Tile for the backsplash tile, focusing on Fireclay's huge range of bright, vibrant colors. This is what they came up with!

We are so thrilled with how it turned out! Using a combination of 36 colors from our Debris Series Recycled Tile line (and 3 colors from our Vitrail Series), Ciao Bella designed a backsplash that emulated its brand perfectly, highlighting bright, beautiful colors, just likes its delicious gelato.

You can read more about why Ciao Bella chose Fireclay in this great blog post here.

To check out some Fireclay Tile for your own backsplash, consider ordering some samples!

Last week Eric Edelson, Fireclay's VP and Co-Owner, was quoted in the small business section of the New York Times. Receivables are a big issue, especially for a small business, as your cash becomes tied up in your customers' hands, and there is a fear that you may never actually see the pay off for all your hard work. At Fireclay, we had an issue of people not paying us on time, and over time those customers' ability to pay wained as their business faced new challenges. By tweaking a few internal processes, we were able to realize substantial improvements in cash flow just by more tightly controlling our customers' terms.

Ultimately, this has allowed Fireclay to be a better partner for our customers, and for our relationships to be stronger with customers than they were before. If you have any questions, please feel free to email Eric @ fireclaytile.com.

Fireclay Tile was honored to be highlighted in the July 27, 2011 "Workplace of the Day" section of the Wall Street Journal. Basically, the WSJ looks for different types of businesses with the goal of featuring the interior spaces so folks can see what it's like to be in the workplace for a day. Check out what it's like at Fireclay each and every day!

We are so excited to announce a wonderful collaboration between Fireclay Tile and New Avenue Homes, a Northern California start-up that finances and builds backyard cottages and second units. A fantastic new concept being led by Kevin Casey, when New Avenue went to look for surfacing material partners for its kitchens and bathrooms,we were so happy they found their way to Fireclay Tile.

The idea behind New Avenue Homes is that home renovations and additions are expensive. At the same time, many homeowners have unused land and would like to create additional living space, either for friends, family, or perhaps additional rental income. Though the idea of modular homes has been tried numerous times with so far little success due to the financial costs and scale, New Avenue’s model of modular cottage homes makes perfect sense, both financially and aesthetically.

Kevin and the team at New Avenue Homes have made a smart decision to focus on environmentally friendly cottages, with everything from power, to sewage, to building materials. They chose Fireclay’s Debris Series Recycled Tile and our new Crush 100% Recycled Glass Tile for both their beauty and sustainability, and for their first two homes Fireclay’s Design Specialist, Amie, came up with an eye-catching mix of ceramic and glass tile colors that carried through New Avenue’s desire for a natural looking surface.

Crush in 3x6 Freesia (16) in Matte and Gloss with Debris Series Bamboo Matte 4x4

“I chose Fireclay Tiles for several reasons. They are beautiful, high quality tiles that have a fantastic natural look. Fireclay Tile is also a domestic company focused on sustainable manufacturing through great recycled product lines and low environmental impact processes. As a company their values matched the values New Avenue Home stands behind and very simply their tiles are stunning.”

– Kevin Casey, Founder New Avenue Homes

Today, New Avenue unveils The Home of Innovation - The central home for the Pacific Coast Builders Conference. The home is sponsored by GE, New Avenue, Southern California Edison, Apple and many others, and it is located inside the Moscone convention center.  This home is open for three days - Wed June 22 through Friday June 24. To register for your free pass go to www.pcbc.com/go/freepassand at check out, use discount code newavenue.

Inside the Moscone Center you will also find the San Jose Clean Energy Showcase Eco House - A model of sustainability and energy efficiency. This modular home is located in front of the main entrance to Moscone Center on Howard Street (at 3rd Street and Howard in San Francisco). This home is open for four days – Wed June 22 through Saturday June 25. Tours are open to the public, with no registration required.

Also be sure to check out Kevin Warnock's blog highlighting the cool journey of these modular homes from San Jose to San Francisco.

About New Avenue Homes:

New Avenue makes it possible for every homeowner to turn their house into two homes so they can share their lives with family and friends or earn additional income. Backyard cottages and second units are one of the the most sustainable, convenient and enjoyable ways to live. For a free consultation or to learn more visit their website: www.newavenuehomes.com or email them at: info@newavenuehomes.com

For samples of information about the product just Contact Us.