Saint John Stone, which sells slab stone and unique, high quality tiles, had a good plan for growth that differentiated it from well-established, high volume competitors. What it needed was additional capital to achieve its ambitious plan.

About the Opportunity

President and founder Barry Eyre, and two other equity partners, established Saint John Stone in 2005 to import high quality stone and tiles. Since then, the company has rapidly expanded its line of high quality specialty tiles to designers, architects, and others who specify materials for their clients. While the company continues to sell slabs to the southern New England home market, its growth lies in the specification business.

Instead of selling slabs one at a time to individual customers, Saint John Stone is expanding a highly leveraged business by selling, for example, 20,000 square feet of tile at a time to new hotels and other high-end customers across the U.S. and increasingly abroad. It sources the material in China, India, Italy, and elsewhere, and ships the tile as it's ordered, avoiding the need to inventory tiles.

Why the BDCRI Got Involved

The BDCRI decided to provide mezzanine financing to Saint John Stone, in the form of a five-year $350,000 term loan subordinated to Washington Trust Company, because:

1. Eyre has built a solid management team, which includes partners Erich Hielemann, who staffs an office in Shanghai, and Lucy Minturn, and fine tuned a business model that minimizes financial risk.
2. The boutique tile business has exceptionally strong growth prospects and the company has forged strong ties to designers and architects who seek unique products.
3. The company recently moved into a warehouse in Quonset that will support the slab business while providing space to expand the specialty tile business.
   
   
   
   Back to Client Stories