SAN DIEGO, CA - Ceramic Tile And Stone Consultants, Inc. (CTaSC), a national company providing marketing research and business planning services, has announced that Michele Aloe, a Sales Manager at Walker Zanger’s Las Vegas, NV, location, and Gasper Naquin, owner of Stone Interiors, a large stone fabricating company located in Loxley, AL, are the raffle winners of an Apple 16 GB iPhone4 for their participation and completion of the recent U.S. Stone Survey.

The winners were randomly chosen from a record number of industry members that completed the U.S. Stone Survey conducted in April 2010 by CTaSC. Over 2,400 manufacturers, quarries, exporters, importers, distributors, fabricators and retailers were invited to take the stone survey developed by CTaSC using progressive online technology that ensured the confidentiality of all participants by compiling data anonymously. Each person who completed the survey received a free summary of the survey results.

Participants answered a series of questions based on their business category. Importers, distributors and retailers were quizzed on the types of stone they sell, slab and tile sizes, sales by type of customers and sales by types of applications. Fabricators were asked to answer questions about their fabrication business, including shop size, equipment and tool brands, purchase and selling price of stone, annual sales and types of finished products and stone types that are fabricated.

The 2010 U.S. Stone Survey results will be included in the upcoming Catalina 2010 Natural and Manufactured Stone Products Report prepared by Catalina Research, a prominent research firm, and Ceramic Tile and Stone Consultant’s industry expert Donato Pompo, which were purchased in July.

The survey results will be further elaborated upon and integrated into the 2010 Natural and Manufactured Stone Product Report. This comprehensive publication, which is being updated from 2006, will provide an in-depth analysis of the U.S. and Canadian stone industry based on U.S. government statistics and market resources. Some of the topics that are covered include trends and forecasts for the stone industry and the current state of the economy, sales by type of stone, engineered stone, manufactured stone (made of concrete), end-use market trends and demographics, economic factors effecting demand for stone, imports and exports, installers, retailers, home centers, floor covering channels and Internet sales channels. It will also have sections on quarries, processing plants and fabricators operation costs and profitability, stone industry cost structure and competitive environment, industry capital expenditures and machinery costs.

Donato Pompo, President of CTaSC, underscored the importance of the information gathered from the survey by stating, “In-depth information about the stone industry is very hard to come by. It’s vital for all of us to know what’s going on in the market and understand how the current state of the economy will affect our business and our future opportunities.”

This is the third time CTaSC has conducted a stone survey (the first was in 2003, the second in 2006). For more information and pricing on the 2010 Natural and Manufactured Stone Product Report, contact CTaSC at 866-669-1550 or visit its Web site at www.CTaSC.com.