CAV'ART: A stone business with heart, built on relationships

Sponsored by CAV’ART Designer Stone

You only have to look at the countless beautiful photographs of kitchens and bathrooms using CAV’ART Designer Stone’s products to know they sell an incredible natural stone range but owning a business and dealing with the industry and customers is about a lot more for Nathan Karpenko.

Starting his career in hospitality, where he worked in five-star hotels and learned everything about problem-solving, people skills and customer service, he later went to work for one of the biggest stone suppliers in the business. But a health scare made him reassess the trajectory his life was on and led to him starting his own business, CAV’ART Designer Stone.

Nathan got a job as a hotel porter straight out of school with dreams of becoming a head concierge, which he managed by the impressively young age of 21. “I just loved it!” He later got accepted into Les Clefs d’Ors (meaning golden keys) in 2000. It was a huge year for him, heading up the opening of Le Meridien Hotel Sydney and being chosen by the City of Sydney to run with the Olympic torch. Not to mention his first son was born!

But Nathan didn’t want to be “a 65 year-old concierge” and had to start considering his family, so when CDK Stone approached him to work for them in 2003, he made the leap. Everything he’d learned in high school geology came flooding back, but mostly Nathan loved working with interior designers and stonemasons alike, soaking up the new industry “like a sponge”. He was later headhunted by a furniture business to work for them but couldn’t resist returning to CDK when approached a few years later. His passion for stone was real and he would work there for another decade. It was a great place to work and be part of, Nathan says, and he ended up with shares in the business, but he knew he wanted to do things a little differently, in a way that could perhaps only be realised on a smaller scale.

In 2019, Nathan’s world took a turn when he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and he was in surgery the following week, then six months of chemotherapy. “It was a pivotal moment for me. It changed me in many ways. I slowed down. I got fitter and healthier. I looked at what I was working for, and felt that I wanted to create something that helped people. I took a leap of faith and started small.”

He could also see the way things were likely to go in the stone industry and he was really drawn to natural stone. CAV’ART Designer Stone opened in May 2021, not long before the Sydney lockdowns started in June. “I had to really back myself. It was a risk but I lived and breathed it. Dealing with customers has always been a joy and fun even, it never felt like a task.”

A few years later and with a business that not only survived covid but is thriving, he loves guiding customers through the sometimes daunting process of picking the right stone for their home. Those good relationships Nathan fostered in the past meant he was immediately supported by the industry. “We’re open and honest with people, we want to serve and educate them and we have really good relationships with everyone. We work with and respect the stonemasons and the interior designers and architects. And no job is too small if a customer just wants an offcut for a fireplace. We don’t need to be the biggest company to give the best result.”

At the end of last year, CAV’ART moved into a bigger warehouse in Sydney’s Bankstown. “The stone is displayed so well now. Everyone comments on it. People in the industry who have been all over the world say our range is incredible.” A lot of CAV’ART’s business is via referral and he enjoys strong relationships with industry body KBDi.

A real joy for Nathan these days is seeing his 21-year-old son move up the ranks in the business. Starting out picking samples and labelling boxes a couple of years ago when he finished year 12, he’s now working in sales. “The feedback I get from customers makes me so proud,” he says.