"Year's ago, I tried to put together a package to buy a new machinery line, which back in 1985 would have been about $150,000," says Aldridge. "Well, back then we didn't have a whole lot of additional cash, and our company was young enough that major financing was difficult. We held off and continued to buy slabs as a cutting station until 1990, when we were able to come up with some used machinery on a shoestring budget."

By 1993 the company had its two countertop lines running, in which Aldridge had invested about $110,000 to $120,000. If purchased new, says Aldridge, those lines would have cost him about $250,000 a piece.

Economy and employees
"A friend of mine once told me years ago that there are only two ways to go in business--you're either going up or you're going down," says Aldridge. "There is no such thing as staying still."

"We had record sales in the first six months of 2000, but things started dropping off in the second half due to the downswing of the economy. Sales dropped enought that by the end of the year we had to lay off employees for the first time in over 10 years," says Aldridge. "We ended up having a decent year, but a not-so-great year profit-wise. Because of the solid first half, we had geared up at the beginning of the second half of the year for increased production, but it just never happened."

"This year we've cut back and tightened up everywhere along the line," added Aldridge. "Essentially we've put ourselves in a position where we can make money during the slow time. It really hasn't been as bad as I thought intially. Our operations people have taken advantage of the slow time to streamline and improve many of our production procedures and equipment to become more efficient. We have also become aggressive in regards to new product introduction with an eye on increasing our share of the business that's out there. This past summer we introduced Visioneer solid surface sinks and we announced two new laminate countertop profiles. This fall we added seven new edge profiles to our Visioneer countertop program and before Thanksgiving we will be rolling out a new wood species for our wood edges laminate and solid surface countertops."

The sole owner and president of Sta-Care, Aldridge says he's always felt that the company is not his alone because he believes it belongs to the employees as well.

"It's my job to guide this company and to keep it out of trouble, but I feel employees have ownership in this company simply by way of commitment," Aldridge says. "There are a lot of people here who have a right to say what goes on because they've invested a lot of themselves in the company. I truly believe that."

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