Published June 6, 2024
By Lauren Lawley Head – Contributor to Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal
About 10 years ago, Jason Peterka applied for a sales job at Pacific Granite, a stone fabrication company where his brother, Cameron Peterka, worked. It turned out to be such a good fit that a few years in, the owner started talking with Jason about buying the business.
“One day, he was very serious,” Jason said. “He dropped his number a little bit, and I talked to my wife and Eric and here we are.”
Completing the acquisition took about six months. The process started with Eric Haney, Highland Bank, Assistant Vice President, Small Business Banker, sitting at the kitchen table with Jason and his wife, Carrie Peterka, where they began developing their plan. He advised the couple to bring in an accountant and attorney and then helped them navigate each step of the deal.
“I walked them through what the basic requirements were going to be in regard to an acquisition loan,” Haney said. From there, they tackled the letter of intent, purchase agreement and how the Peterkas would handle the down payment and loan. “I was able to go over the grand scheme of everything, and then as one thing came in, we needed to do this or that — it was just a process.”
Highland Bank worked with the Peterkas to secure an SBA acquisition loan and an SBA Express line of credit. The bank also provides the company with a deposit account, savings account, cash management services and a point-of-sale system for its showrooms. On Sept. 22, 2023, the Peterkas closed on the purchase.
“It was a lot of work but a good learning experience,” Jason said. “It really helped us to be able to handle this place.”
Jason and Carrie are now co-owners of the business. Jason focuses on sales and operations, while Carrie is vice president and focuses on bookkeeping. She also maintains her full-time job as a diagnostic imaging manager overseeing 50 employees at Allina Health.
They’ve stepped into their new roles with conviction that Pacific Granite had great, untapped possibilities.
“We knew it was this gem of a business that had way more potential,” Carrie said. “While it was really scary in a time where markets and interest rates were changing, it was one of those things where we’re never going to know if we didn’t take the risk and jump into it.”
Since they acquired the business, the Peterkas have focused on expanding sales to multifamily property developments. The company signed its first major multifamily project within a few weeks of completing the acquisition.
“That was pretty exciting for us,” Carrie said. “Then, about a week after that, we got another call from a different construction company that wanted us to bid on another large apartment complex. Everything was starting to align.”
Within the first six months, Pacific Granite had revenue of about $2 million – more than the Peterkas had forecast for the entire year. They have quickly shifted the company’s revenue from 70% residential and 30% commercial to the reverse.
Pacific Granite is close to completing a project at The Mera, a 350-apartment complex in St. Louis Park scheduled to open in August 2024. It also has a 165-unit project underway in Maple Grove and just started taking measurements for a 200-unit project.
The scale of these commercial projects also means more work overall. Prior to the acquisition, Pacific Granite’s highest-ever week involved processing approximately 1,500 square feet of granite, Peterka said. Today, the business regularly processes 1,800 square feet weekly.
To help handle the growth, Pacific Granite turned to Highland Bank for an SBA equipment loan to purchase a machine that polishes the edges and faces of granite slabs. This purchase will eliminate five hours of polishing on some pieces, according to Jason.
“It takes a bit of the stress off the guys that are hand-polishing if you can have the equipment do stuff,” Jason said. “It saves a lot in the payroll and allows us to be more efficient and move a little quicker.”
Peterka said if the volume continues to increase, the company will likely come back to Highland Bank for help purchasing another saw.
“It’s great to hear the way that they’re expanding the business,” Haney said. “We’re going to be able to continue to grow with them.”
Pacific Granite is a stone fabrication company providing high-quality services for both residential and commercial projects.
