Using the knowledge he gained from running porcelain factories for many years, Luo Shengxiang made the leap to quartz surfacing in 2006 when he founded Nande Quartz Stone. Since that time, the company, which Shengxiang runs with his business partner Pan Jinen, has been a silent leader among Chinese quartz manufacturers — primarily producing products for other Chinese companies to sell to the U.S. market. But with the recent completion of an expansion to its factory — located in Jiantao Industry Zone No. 2, Taoyuan Town, Heshan City, Guangdong, China — Nande Quartz Stone is ready to strengthen its presence in North America, as well as to continue to produce quality quartz products for Australia and Europe.

Mark Schama of StoneSpec explained he first encountered Nande Quartz Stone a while back when he was researching Chinese quartz manufacturers for a U.S. company he worked for at the time. “I had the task of going through China and meeting quartz manufacturers,” he explained. “I took it seriously. I went through cradle-to-cradle certification, which is very hard to do,” he said. “It’s a long process. I went through the chemistry, where the ingredients came from, the legitimacy of material suppliers. We selected certain factories to make certain products. Nande looked like a small company, but they made a great white quartz. I learned they specialized in making whites and grays that were sold to other factories to sell to the U.S. market. They were a kind of ‘sleeper’ company not many people knew about. The owner is Chinese and all his connections are Chinese. We became friendlier through an interpreter. He wanted to develop a market in U.S.”

Since that time, Nande Quartz Stone, which employs a staff of 250 workers, has penetrated the North American market and its larger facility will allow the company to increase the amount of containers it ships per month from 200 to 400. Of the current number being shipped, 120 containers are exported to the U.S.

In addition to producing quartz, Nande Quartz Stone manufactures its own brand of machinery, Zunlang, which is specifically designed for quartz manufacturing. “By building our own equipment, we are able to use the most up-to-date engineering to make certain our equipment is on the cutting edge,” according to the company, who has been producing this brand for 25 years. “This allows us to assure the highest quality.”

With a present collection of more than 50 colors, Nande Quartz Stone will concentrate next on producing a marble-looking aesthetic. “An important point is they are a quartz machine maker,” said Schama. “They can create machinery to create the product.”