When it was first established in early 1990, Cajugram of Mimoso do Sul, Espírito Santo, Brazil, operated two gangsaws with the intent of supplying stone for the local domestic market. A few years later, the firm had the opportunity to invest in more technology - adding slab polishing equipment and tile lines - and the company started to export polished granite slabs and tiles to North America and South America. Today, Cajugram is one of Brazil’s largest stone suppliers.
Quarrying Operations
Cajugram quarries 17 types of granite, and the quarry sites are located in several different states, including Espírito Santo to Minas Gerais, Bahia and Goias.Materials from Cajugram’s quarries include: Brazilian Black, Amazon Green, Ipanema Beige, Icaraí Yellow, Santa Cecília, San Francisco Yellow, Giallo Renoir, Giallo Portinari, Giallo Monet, Giallo Platinum, Golden Storm, Bordeaux Light, Versace, Coral Spring, Goiás Pink, Brasília Red and Kilimanjaro.
An average of 12 employees are at work in each quarry, with a total of 200 quarrymen employed by the company. In all, the quarries produce approximately 1,500 cubic meters of material each month.
Stone Processing
Cajugram’s factory is located on nearly 250 acres, with 120,000 square feet of built area. Machinery includes 17 gangsaws from Cimef and MGM of Brazil; three automatic polishing machines from MGM (two with 16 heads and one with 20 heads); two tile lines from Coch of Argentina; four bridge saws from Zonato of Italy and Coch; a CNC stoneworking center from Comandulli of Italy; a countertop line from Breton of Italy; a semi-automatic resin-treatment line from Roch Industrial of Brazil; a mono-diamond wire saw from Rochaz of Brazil; and a multi-diamond wire saw for processing blocks into slabs from Wires Engineering of Italy.Sales and Marketing
A total of 85% of Cajugram’s sales comes from slab production, with 10% tile or cut-to-size sales and 5% block sales. In all, the company processes 555,000 square feet of material. Of this, 65% is exported, and 35% is sold within the domestic market.Cajugram exports about 70 containers per month, and it intends to increase that total to 150 containers over the next two years. Also in the future, Cajugram expects a shift in production to 60% slabs, 20% tiles and 20% cut-to-size work.
In terms of slab sales, Cajugram works with distributors, fabricators and builders across the U.S.