Since the beginning, TAB India’s goal isn’t to be the second best or the third best, it is to be the best in everything they do. TAB India does everything it can to create the best materials, create the best working environment and be the best in renewable energy. “We make natural stone, and we are now making quartz,” said Amit Gupta, CEO of TAB India. “So we are moving from just being a natural stone producer to an all-around various surfaces producer. Breaking the company’s strict adherence to natural stone, to now quartz and in the future perhaps porcelains and other surfaces. We decided to change the name to TAB Surfaces, from just TAB Natural Stone.”

According to Amit, the soul of TAB India is to create without destroying, but also to give something back to the planet. With this in mind, TAB India has consolidated its two campuses into one. “One campus means consolidation, controlled overheads and head count, same systems, general ease of not having to run from campus to campus to run companies,” said Amit. “We now are in 35 acres of area. It’s a one-stop shop for clients who visit. They can get everything done in one visit — from natural stone to quartz. Shared staff helps in keeping costs under control. One campus means better access to everything instantly. We have developed a campus full of trees, lush greenery, water harvesting, rainwater harvesting and storage, solar to come soon and other ideas we feel passionate about. It’s almost a self-sustained city on its own. We have gangsaws and polishing lines and quartz plants, gantries, bicycles to move around, kitchen gardens, mango and papaya trees and so on.” In addition, the new single campus has more space for growth in the future. Each plant is a five-minute bike ride away. It makes it very easy and convenient for a customer to visit and tour the facility and make all their business decisions.

Helping the environment

Roughly 80% of the energy that TAB India uses is fully renewable energy and the company is making strides to 100% renewable energy. “We started with investments in wind power, but we are evaluating solar power now which has a renewed push now in India with renewed technologies,” explained Sumit Gupta, managing director at TAB. “We understand what is happening to the world today with rising global temperatures, unprecedented melting in the artic and melting glaciers, water shortages and an unsustainable global population. We strongly believe that our way of life is no longer sustainable and planet earth is in danger. We have every intention to do everything in our power to reduce the carbon footprint of our activities. This is a discussion in TAB daily. It’s a concern. We are trying to come up with better and better methods to be a company that eventually becomes carbon neutral, as well as a company that is very conscious of its activity. For us, it’s no longer an issue of revenues and profits, it’s more about ensuring we reduce our contribution drastically toward global warming.”

For any leftover pieces of stone that is produced, TAB India will make bricks out of them or recycle them responsibly. The slurry that TAB India expends is used to make slurry and cement building bricks. They have a separate plant to make them so that the slurry isn’t wasted. The bricks are sold at the local market. The company also has multiple filtration plants where they reuse all of the water that is used on their saws. They don’t hand out plastic bottles of water. They hand out glass bottles of water that they take back and reuse. “We are very aware that we are taking a lot from Earth,” said Amit. “We want to make sure that when we leave, that we give back more than we have taken and leave more than when we started.”

Taking care of their employees

A lot of the people hired at TAB India started their career with the company at a young age. “They saw growth, opportunities, an equal workplace, less emphasis on hierarchies and more on value of everyone’s contribution is important and must be heard,” said Sumit. “Our employees have a voice. They are part of our process. They are encouraged to improve their processes and their voices are heard. They have been empowered to make decisions for their departments in the company. They are equal participants. There are no bosses at TAB per se; it’s a fairly flat management style. And individual stakeholders and departments are part of the chain that makes TAB, an important part. I think it has been the ethos of TAB unlike most other companies in India. I believe this is the primary reason for low turnover. They are not just a number but an individual who has participation.”

When TAB started, they wanted to eat with their employees, and not have a system of hierarchy. “A lot of local industries called us and said you are destroying what is common which is that employees bring their own lunch,” said Amit. “That was not acceptable to us. We are from the new generation and we wanted to create new rules from food to their health to their benefits to their wages. I am proud to say that 90% of the people that started with this company 20 years ago, are still here. That gives us immense joy to take care of the people that are taking care of TAB.”

The future of stone

In regards to what are some new offerings the company has concerning natural stone, they will offer 12 mm slabs for Western Europe. Their new marbles, quartzites and granites from around the world are a constant for the company. “We recently imported a new cut-to-size plant from CMS Brembana that will increase our capacity and abilities to cut-to-size drastically,” said Sumit. “We are working on a marble protective surface for our marbles. We are seeing increased sales in our cobbles and recycled granite pavers.” The company also has new granites coming from India. Also several new colors from around the world that will make TAB India a more integrated processer of materials from around the world.

As far as quartz, everything is new. “Our marble colors, our new lines and look and colors are new,” said Amit. “The accolades and appreciation we are receiving for the high density of our quartz, heavier and more robust slabs. The ease with which it cuts on saws for fabricators. The low VOCs that you experience in our plant and during the cutting of our quartz slabs. The unprecedented gloss our slabs are achieving. We are well known for our polish and it seems that we have replicated the same in quartz.”

TAB India says it always goes above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to their products, employees and customer service. “For example, we are automatically rust proofing all our white granites to prevent oxidation at a later date for no extra charge,” said Amit. “But TAB is always trying to improve its product. We take extreme pride in what we produce, the level of quality standards we adhere to and how the products that we produce are very high on quality and second to none. In addition to this, we are very committed to the environment. We are aware of what we are doing and its effects, and we are working toward reducing its effects.”