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Historic marble company partners with Quick Start on training for tech upgrades

For well over a century, marble from quarries in North Georgia’s Pickens County has been the ideal material for buildings, monuments and sculptures that represent the enduring values of America: the Lincoln Memorial, the Alamo Cenotaph, the headstones marking the graves of fallen heroes in Arlington National Cemetery.

From its founding in 1884, the Georgia Marble Company had operated continuously for nearly 120 years when economic conditions caught up with the business. After the company changed ownership a few times, the dimension stone division of Georgia Marble was marked for closing. Market conditions and old technology had decreased the profitability in structural and memorial marble.

Fortunately for the residents and businesses around Tate, Ga., in 2003, the Canadian company Polycor bought the struggling dimension stone division of the Georgia Marble Company from Imerys, saving not only more than 70 jobs, but also a long Georgia tradition.

Training from local technical colleges and Georgia Quick Start, as well as new technology, were the key.

“New technology allows us to be more productive and competitive,” said Patrick Perus, then-President and CEO of Polycor. “Training is important, Quick Start is an amazing program, the best of its kind.”