Comment from Express Granite, LLC

As a small business owner on the Fabrication side of the business, I couldn't disagree with the proposed quartz restrictions more. The past 10 years have seen quartz demand spike due to a consumer preference for simpler, cleaner looks with their countertop surfaces. That said, “stone” countertop slabs, whether natural or manufactured, have largely been imported vs. quarried/produced domestically. From my view, these proposed regulations do not help the US Economy at all as artificially driving up the price of imported quartz only does two things – hurts overall consumer demand, or pushes people back into using natural stone for their countertops (which again, are largely imported). How does this benefit American consumers, or the entire Stone Fabrication business? The fact is that these regulations help only one company – Cambria. Cambia works with 2 fabricators in the entire STL metro area…why? They’re increasing prices and limiting competition for the end consumers – how is that a good thing? Most of the other larger quartz brands we purchase from have invested in quartz manufacturing facilities over recent years as well. The legislation proposed is extremely short sighted and will only hurt hyper local, small businesses like myself and increase end prices to consumers.