THE DRIVE PORTRAIT
Santerra Stonecraft's Joe Santarossa
by Gavin MacDougall

New Name, Better Game

The name might be new, but Santerra Stonecroft remains as much an industry leader in architectual landscape, stone and masonry products as it has for the past 25 years.

Joe Santarossa greets his visitors with an easy smile and a firm handshake. It’s a sunny Saturday morning at his Santerra Stonecraft Retail Design Centre along EC Row Expressway, just west of Jefferson Avenue; a "crazy day," as Santarossa puts it, for his business. The month of May ushers in renovating and landscaping plans by the hundreds, with many homeowners looking to add a particular stone, brick or masonry product to their projects. At first glance, Santarossa’s company may appear to be a newcomer to the industry, seeing how the business has been at its Rhodes Drive location for only a year. And yet, at Santerra Stonecraft, consumers are dealing with a company that traces its roots back more than 60 years. Successful business? You bet. But no one will ever accuse Joe Santarossa and his family of resting on their laurels.

J. Santarossa & Sons has been pouring concrete across Windsor and Essex County since 1945, the year Joachim Santarossa and his sons Joseph and Marino - all concrete tradesmen who worked on various projects in the Windsor area – decided it was time to forge their own mark in the business world. The trio started their own concrete business with a small truck and a couple of wheelbarrows, and evolved into one of Windsor and Essex County's more established ready-mix producers. Business soared with the infrastructural booms of the fifties and sixties, and the company quickly established a leading position in the Windsor-Essex market.

By 1984 Joseph Santarossa, now president of the family business, recognized the need for a second company that could produce concrete blocks, and masonry and landscape material products, since the applications for these types of products were beginning to widen; as was the commercial and consumer market for them. With that in mind, the Santarossas horizontally integrated their operation from that of concrete producer and supplier to also that of a manufacturer and distributor of fine concrete products. They did this by way of establishing Santsar Industries, the specialty-stone and masonry products company the senior Santarossa launched with his sons Joe and Tony, and daughter Robin. Over the next two decades, Santsar grew into one of the largest manufacturers in Southwest Ontario of concrete blocks, brick, interlocking paving stones and specialty masonry products. Success begot success, and business was generally good. Indeed, in better economic times, it was downright booming. So, as Santsar neared its 25th anniversary, what was Santarossa’s next logical move?

Rebrand and rename the company, of course! The Santsar name had always been awkward. People had trouble finding it in the phone book. Was it Sanstar? Sansar? With a new focus on consumer marketing, the company needed something friendlier. Something catchier.

Last summer, Santsar Industries relaunched itself as Santerra Stonecraft. The company opened its new Retail Design Centre on Rhodes Drive, featuring a showroom that is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the area. Visitors were now able to explore design ideas and plan landscaping projects in a customer-friendly environment, while choosing from not only Santerra’s own renowned product lines, but also some of the most respected brand names in the building business. The end result: certainly the area’s most extensive product selection and design possibilities for architectural landscapers and owners of commercial and residential properties.

"Our rebranding and the establishment of a first-rate design centre was something we’d been considering for a long time," says Santarossa, when explaining the family's decision to go against the "if-it’s-not-broke-don’t-fix-it" grain. "We’d long envisioned a friendly, upscale place where our customers could easily plan and execute their construction and landscaping projects. Our factory site in McGregor was a bit out of the way for most and besides it has always had more of an industrial feel to it. It is, first and foremost, a manufacturing site. We needed something more accessible. Something more inviting. We think we’ve accomplished that with our new Design Centre."

Santerra Stonecraft’s Retail Design Centre is an 8,000 sq. ft. showroom adjacent to J. Santarossa & Sons. It was designed to provide what Santarossa calls "better products, better quality service, better convenience, and a personalized touch." With its one convenient and central location, Santerra Stonecraft has accomplished that. Customers now enjoy a true shopping experience, where they can consult with the company’s team of experts, get beginning-toend assistance with the design and creative process, and have all of their needs taken care of for interior and exterior home beautification.

"I think our customers, from the professionals to the weekend warriors, really appreciate the Design Centre and everything it has to offer," says Santarossa. "The feedback we’ve received over the past year has been tremendous and certainly validates our moving in this kind of direction. We just felt we were missing the boat a bit with what we could be doing on the retail side of things. Now we carry a greater diversity of masonry and landscape products for landscapers, architects, general contractors and doit- yourselfers. It’s all about serving our customers’ needs and this move has allowed us to do that like never before."

Santarossa and his sibling’s vision and commitment to their customers comes from good stock. Their grandfather, father and uncle earned the reputation that J. Santarossa & Sons enjoyed over the past seven decades through honesty, integrity and the highest quality workmanship - attributes Joe himself says he learned from an early age.

"Some kids did other things in high school, I poured concrete," says Santarossa, with a laugh. "But it was a great experience for me and taught me all that went into building a successful business, with satisfied customers. Running your own business is not easy but it is very rewarding when you’re able to consistently provide a good product with great service that your customers value. We’re deeply committed to maintaining the industry’s highest standards of customer service and support. The reputation and credibility built by my grandfather, father and uncle is not something we take lightly. They got that reputation by providing outstanding customer service and we do the same thing with everyone we work with – from landscape architects to contractors, right down to the weekend do-it-yourselfer. When people buy our products, they’re usually making a big investment in their properties. They want to improve the look and functionality of their living spaces, so we owe them nothing but the best in terms of quality of products and great service."

Santarossa has lived by that mantra since first helping establishing the family's spin-off business, even through some early lean years when the company produced and sold mostly patio stones. But by its fifth year in business, the company was beginning to manufacturer more sophisticated products like interlocking stones and masonry products for home and business exteriors. Its portfolio soon ballooned as it began to see the kinds of things discriminating property owners were willing to purchase for their interior and exterior needs. Through the late 1990s, growth exploded as the market became increasingly attuned to their properties as something more than just a place in which to work, or live, sleep and eat.

"People wanted to make a statement," says Santarossa, recalling the trends that helped fuel his company’s growth. "The movement was definitely toward wanting to beautify their living spaces. We noticed it especially in the area of landscape design, where people began incorporating more stonework into their designs."

That trend continued unabated through 2007, which helped fuel Santarossa and his team’s focus on the retail side of their business. First and foremost in that regard was a stronger storefront and a location closer to their homeowner market. And while the rebranding and name change came in the midst of one of the worst recessions in recent memory, Santarossa says the changes have produced positive results.

‘We have to gauge the re-branding in the proper context," he says. ‘Would we like to be busier? Yes, but that’s probably something any business in our area would say about the past year. Right now, the move has been good and customer response has been great. We think rebranding and setting up this retail showcase venue positions our company well for when the economy does turn around."

Poor economy or not, Santerra Stonecraft remains the largest producer of concrete blocks and landscape products in Southwest Ontario, and the only producer of concrete masonry products. These include several lines of beautiful paving stones, retaining walls, natural rockery and decorative ground covers, not to mention a complete line of architectural brick and block products.

Santerra’s current business model is essentially three-fold: the company brings in products from across North America and retails to its residential and commercial customers; it manufacturers its own products and sells them to both local and export markets; and manufacturers products for large scale projects like the WFCU Centre and Caesars Windsor. In fact, Santerra Stonecraft products can be seen throughout the city and county in numerous large-scale commercial projects. The WFCU Centre is a case in point: Santerra provided all of the concrete brick for the new arena, and there were tons of it! By providing a coloured block product Santerra saved the City the expensive task of having to repaint the WFCU Centre corridor walls every five or seven years. The same can be said for the Vollmer Complex in LaSalle and for Essex’s new twin-pad arena, both of which were also Santerra projects.

All manufacturing is done at Santerra’s Howard Avenue plant in McGregor, where products ranging from block and brick to paving stones and retaining wall systems are cut and fabricated. The company's processes and manufacturing are the latest and most efficient the concrete products industry offers, with its line-up of updated machinery and technologies having enabled Santerra to meet several industry "green" initiatives with respect to environmentally-conscious products. As a producer, Santerra Stonecraft is at the forefront of environmentally friendly products that comply with and exceed industry standards set forth by the LEEDS program.

"That’s always been something we’re very conscious of and I think it’s one of our biggest assets and strengths," says Santarossa. "We recycle the material that we use and we build solid, long term sustainable products."

Santarossa is naturally reserved when it comes to acknowledging his company’s accomplishments, but he nonetheless takes great pride in the sustained success of the enterprise he, his father, and his siblings spun-off from the main family business a quarter-century ago.

"Looking back, it’s hard to believe we’ve been doing this for twenty-five years," he says. "Like any business we had some lean years early on, but we persevered and have been very fortunate to have built a successful company. We have so many customers – both residential and commercial – around Windsor and Essex County to thank for that. We've also been blessed with a great team of people to work with. Our staff is the most knowledgeable in the industry."

He’s also quick to acknowledge the support of his family in helping make Santsar, and now Santerra Stonecraft, all that it has become. "I learned so much from my father and how he took an established business and grew it to be something even bigger," says Santarossa.

"Our family has always taken a lot of pride in how we run our family businesses. We’ve all got a strong work ethic, but we’ve also been able to create this very harmonious relationship with the way we do things and with separate companies. You don’t always see that with a family business, but it’s definitely something that’s allowed us to contribute to the overall success of our companies."

As for the future, and whether Santarossa sees the next generation taking over the reins of Santerra Stonecraft, he only says time will tell. What he does see for the company’s next 25 years is growth opportunity in several areas, even though, like everyone in the region, he remains concerned about the local manufacturing base.

"Obviously, everyone in retail will feel the effect of a decrease in our manufacturing base because it has fuelled so much of our local economy over the years," he says. "We’ve got to stay positive though and keep working together to support local manufacturers as best we can, while also taking advantage of the new opportunities that our community will be presented."

Santerra’s CEO - or "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer," as Santarossa jokingly describes his position with the company – is well-versed in that regard, having steered the company through years of up-and-down economies, all the while increasing its market share and broadening its distribution into markets across Ontario and the US Midwest. For Santarossa, the developments of the past year have re-stoked all the same fires he lit twenty-five years ago. And opportunities abound.

"I’ve never lost that entrepreneurial bug, I guess," says Santarossa. "It’s an interesting business and I love being part of all the elements of it. I think I’ve always liked the creative side of what we do - taking all of these diverse compounds and creating beautiful products that are sustainable. It’s just something I’ve never grown tired of." TDM