Already a worldwide supplier ofnatural stone, the Santucci Group added to its stature with the purchase of sixquarriesfor white marble in the "Monte Sargo" basin of the Carrara region of Italy. Santucci reports that this is second-largest group of quarries in the Carrara area, and they are located on the very top of the Apuan Alps — where the whitest materials are produced.

The purchase is major news for the industry, due to the size of the area, the number of quarries and the substantial quantity of blocks that can be produced.

"When I was a child I used to love to play with bulldozers and excavators, and my father Armando used to tell me, 'If you are a good boy, once you grow up, you will have a real excavator,' " said Fabrizio Santucci. "He was right, and he kept his word; in fact, he gave us the possibility to own more than 10 bulldozers and quarry excavators. My brothers, Leonardo and Francesco, and I owe our father Armando a lot. He's the founder of the Santucci Group, a man who while was working as a craftsman was dreaming about cladding the biggest buildings in the word, and he succeeded in it. After 60 years of success in cut-to-size and slab production, Santucci group is expanding in the block business. A few years ago, we bought the quarry for Calacatta Tucci, a hard marble with a statuary background and gold and silver veining that has been introduced to the U.S. market by Stone Source. It has been used for the renovation of Macys in New York City, the new Intercontinental Hotel in Moscow and the Westin Hotel in Guadalajara, Mexico. The annual production of Calacatta Tucci marble is 20,000 tons, and it can be increased to 40,000 tons.

The quarries of the Monte Sagro region have an annual production of 90,000 tons, and they yield blocks of Statuarietto Vittoria, White Carrara CD, C and Venatino.