Crossville, Tenn.—Earlier this month, Crossville Porcelain Stone/USA opened its own distributorship in Charlotte, N.C., a first for the factory. “This is a very exciting prospect for us,” said Dewayne Galey, vice president of finance for Crossville, and administrator of the new venture. The distributorship, known as Crossville Tile & Stone, will focus on serving architects, designers, builders and contractors, but the showroom will be open to retail customers as well. In addition to Crossville’s Porcelain Stone, glass, metal and Questech Metals tiles, the distributorship will carry a selection of natural stone, non-competing ceramic tile and setting materials.

Crossville Tile & Stone is located at 927 Pressley Road in Charlotte. Merriman-Schmitt Architects has built out the 23,000-sq.-ft. Crossville is leasing; the space has a 3,200-sq.-ft. showroom, 2,800 square feet of offices and 17,000 square feet of warehouse space. “This venture offers us an unprecedented opportunity to learn about our business from the distributors’ side and figure out ways to serve them better,” said Jim Dougherty, Crossville’s vice president of marketing and business development. “In addition, for the first time we will have a way to conduct test marketing and run pilot programs, which are difficult to do through independent distributors.”

The branch manager for the Charlotte distributorship is Roy Irwin, who has more than 23 years of experience in the tile industry. He was formerly with a Crossville distributor, where he gained knowledge about the product line and the regional market. “It’s a great opportunity,” said Irwin. “Charlotte is a booming area, one of the top 10 distribution markets in the country, as well as one of the top 20 for population growth. “Requests for porcelain stone tile are increasing in the contract market,” he added, “and growing even faster in the residential market. Crossville is accelerating the development of designs that can be used in both types of installations.”

In other news, the commercial winner in Spectrum 2003, the International Ceramic Tile Design Competition, is Airside E, Tampa International Airport, designed by Tampa, Fla.-based Kelly Taaffe Design, which used approximately 21,000-sq.-ft. of tile from Crossville to create the design. “The hard surface flooring was designed as a series of intricate tile ‘stepping stones’ connected by floating tile bridges, all of which have a matte finish,” said designer, Kelly Taaffe. “The matte groupings are set atop a sea of blue polished tile, which simulates the shimmering effect of the ocean. The contrast in matte to polished creates the effect of a bridge of stepping stones floating over a sea of blue.” The Spectrum 2003 awards were announced during the recent Coverings show in Orlando, Fla. For more information on Crossville and its products, call 931/484-2110. —Louis Iannaco