Sponsored by Cav’Art Designer Stone
Nathan Karpenko had been in the natural stone business since 2003 and working for one of Australia’s biggest suppliers before deciding to go out on his own (in the middle of covid no less) five years ago this month. That half-decade has flown by as Cav’Art Designer Stone has garnered the reputation he always wanted: for doing things personally, prioritising quality over quantity, investing in relationships and happy staff, and treating everyone the same; whether they have a huge budget or they’re just after an offcut for their fireplace hearth or coffee table top.
“I really the saw the need for something a bit more boutique and personalised. A lot of clients over the years told me I should be in business myself and making that decision was just one of those pivotal moments.” Nathan had also battled through bowel cancer and six months of chemo in 2019-to-2020, which had already made him start to reassess everything in his life.
“I’ve always loved a challenge and I’ve always treated every business I’ve worked for like it’s mine. It was a risky time though, with lockdowns having already happened in Melbourne but not yet in Sydney. I started to think about the things I really loved and was good at and leaned on the people I worked with, such as stonemasons and interior designers. Ultimately, I had to prove myself all over again as a business owner. But I really knew I’d focus on quality over quantity. In the early days, we could have bought containers of cheap stone and flogged it, but it just isn’t what we do.”
Nathan started from a small warehouse in Bankstown (he’s since moved to a much bigger one) where he knew where every single slab of stone was. And he still does today! And that’s a lot of slabs!
He also has a reputation I can vouch for myself, as one of the nicest and most genuine people in the business.
Nathan shares the 5 key lessons he’s learned in 5 years:
Customer service is everything
Although Nathan applied for and got into a psychology degree, he ended up skipping university and going into hospitality. That said, he definitely thinks there are elements of psychology that apply to his job. “You’ve got to have empathy, you’ve got to be able to read the room.” But his 13 years in hospitality, during which he got accepted into the coveted Les Clefs d’Ors (meaning golden keys), taught him so much more. “I love people and in hospitality I dealt with all kinds. I didn’t care who was pulling up into our driveway; whether they’re very wealthy or someone in a beaten-up old car. I treat everyone exactly the same and it’s very humbling that a lot of clients talk about how good our customer service is. That’s the whole team as well as me, and it really is important to us.”
Working with the right partners makes all the difference
“It takes time to build trust and encourage the right people to work with you. Recently, we’ve had some amazing projects featured in media like Vogue Living and The Local Project, and that calibre of project using our product only comes from working with all the right people along the way.” He adds: “Obviously, working with the right stonemasons is really important, but it starts with working with the right suppliers. That’s so much about trust too; you need to trust that those overseas suppliers are sending you what they show you in a photograph, for example. And the trades and the truck drivers handling the stone; they might have 100s of kilos of stone in one slab on their truck and it’s got to be in good hands. You’ve got to trust the stonemasons to seal that stone properly and only then can the interior designers and architects create what they’ve dreamt and bring it to life.”
Bigger isn’t always better
Having worked for many years for one of the country’s largest natural stone suppliers (which he also had shares in), Nathan knows the difference between working for a huge supplier and a much smaller, boutique one, like Cav’Art. He says it’s easy to become a bit detached working for a big company, but in a smaller one, he knows every slab he’s got in the warehouse and every slab that’s on its way across the ocean. The whole team are genuinely excited when new slabs arrive, and that includes his son Bailey, who started working there straight from school and deciding to have a break from starting university, and has never left. “He takes so much care and has so much knowledge, and even I learn from him,” Nathan says. “He has never taken the job for granted and he’s always worked hard. He’s a lifer now!”
Listen to the customer, rather than assuming you always know best
“We try and be ahead of trends where we can,” says Nathan. “Just because people are talking about purple and yellow for example, doesn’t mean all our clients will like it! “But if five people (and many of our clients are designers) come in in a row, asking for the same thing, then we’ll go and look for that. We can’t always get it right but we try to because we don’t want slabs having too many birthdays in the warehouse! We listen but we don’t want to be selling the same thing all the time, even if it’s easy because it’s everywhere. Taj Mahal is a great example of this; it’s been around and popular for at least 10 years. Some people don’t really care what it looks like, they’ll just go off price and what’s the cheapest. But we’ll never buy like that. We’re always looking for something extra special and a bit different.”
Nothing replaces seeing and touching the product in real life
(I have to agree after recently experiencing the Cav’Art showroom for myself. Just wow!).
Even in this online world, there’s nothing like seeing a slab of natural stone for yourself and Nathan encourages homeowners, architects and designers to visit their showroom in person. “Even a clear picture on your phone isn’t going to show the true colours. If you have a sample, it’s better, but it’s only a small part of the jigsaw puzzle. Seeing it in person, you’ll also experience the emotion. It’s incredible what Mother Nature can create and seeing the full slab up close can be a real emotional experience and often the starting point of a room for many designers and their clients.” Nathan explained if they buy the entire block of stone it can be made up of around 70 slabs and each one is different. You’ll never get to see exactly which one works best for you without going to the showroom and comparing them next to each other. “Even the team and I never tire of the wow factor when new slabs come in that we’ve been waiting months for. Recently we took delivery of some Calacatta Macchia Vecchia from Brazil we’d waited three months for. We opened the door and everyone went ‘oh my God!’ because it was even better in person.”
And they have good coffee too!
Organise a tour of the Cav’Art Sydney showroom or find out more today.
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