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Business
California-Based Statuary Business Casts a Solid Foundation in Columbia
Each piece from Al’s Garden Art can be custom-finished.
A longtime California stone-sculpting business is carving an important niche for itself in Maury County.
Al’s Garden Art moved into the long-vacant Fedders building on Industrial Park Road in Columbia and began its manufacturing and distribution operation in January 2007. Al’s has been manufacturing cast stone fountains and outdoor ornamental statuary since 1949‚ and company officials expect to grow their Maury County warehouse from 65 to 400 jobs within the next five years.
The company is still headquartered in Colton‚ Calif.‚ but officials wanted to establish a distribution center in the central/eastern United States to better serve their customer base.
“We needed to expand out of California and move somewhere near the East Coast‚ simply in order to better serve our retailers who are located east of the Mississippi River‚” says Paul Bracci‚ president of Al’s Garden Art. “We were looking at Nashville and then heard about the building opening in Maury County. It is a perfect fit for us.”
Bracci says Maury County is ideally located within a day’s drive of 75 percent of the dealers who sell Al’s Garden Art products‚ including many who do business out of Florida.
“We don’t sell to the big-box stores. Our business comes from dealing with specialty nurseries‚ garden centers as well as landscape architects throughout the country‚” he says. “We do business with about 2‚500 dealers in the United States‚ and we hand-deliver each piece of artwork with our fleet of trucks. Our products are somewhat heavy‚ so personally delivering each piece allows us to know that every individual fountain or statue will arrive safely to its destination.”
The company handcrafts all of its product line‚ which includes fountains‚ pots and planters‚ statues and birdbaths. Each piece can also be custom finished‚ and the products come in a variety of colors.
“We are simply the best that there is in the stone statuary business‚” Bracci says. “Our garden art is sold from Maine to California‚ and from the state of Washington to Florida. As for Maury County‚ we look forward to doing business here for many years to come.”
Al’s was founded 58 years ago by Alfeo Bracci‚ a sculptor/artist who immigrated to the United States from Monti di Villa in northern Italy. The company has been passed down through generations and remains family owned to this day.
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Greg Emens
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