Best Tile Supports Our Luxury Home Builds
When customers walk into the West Springfield location at Best Tile, Branch Manager Karen Tesini greets them like they’re long-lost friends and asks how she can help.
Very often, they are so out of their element, they tell her they don’t know what they want.
“Take a deep breath and tell me what you don’t like, then we’ll figure out what you do like,” Karen tells them, always adding encouraging words, like, “It’s going to be easy. We can do this together.”
For 30 years, Karen has been helping Best Tile’s customers choose tile, stone, glass, and mosaics products for their bathrooms, kitchens, patios, and porches. She makes the process seamless because that’s the company culture.
“We want to bring the best products to market at the best prices and make sure everybody is getting the best service,” Karen says. “It’s always been the mission. Even though we’re one of the largest importers of tile in the country, it’s a family run operation. We’re not corporate minded.”
Best Tile’s tile and stone comes from Spain, Italy, South America, Portugal, Turkey, and the United States, and they also carry the tools of the trade, from trowels and thinset to shower systems, drains, and accessories.
Karen says what’s been trending in the business in recent years are mid-century modern tiles, subway tiles, squares, and checkerboard patterns in a range of colors. “Color is back,” she adds, noting blues and greens in all shades are popular, along with gold, mustard, and beige. “It’s no longer gray and white. I’m so excited about that.”
Seventy years in the family business
This year marks 70 years in business for the Marcuses, the founding family of Best Tile.
In 1955, Mollie and Harry Marcus sold their installation business, Marcus Tile, to get into the distribution side of things. They began selling tile out of the trunk of their car, later partnering with the Wenczel Tile Company to form Standard Tile Distributors in August 1956.
Harry and Mollie’s son, Steve Marcus, entered the family business and in 1969, opened a location in Albany, New York, giving the business the name it would take forward: Best Tile.
By the early 1970s, Best Tile was importing tile from around the world and had created a large presence in the Northeast. Steve and partner Bob Rose expanded into Central and Western New York and over the years continued expansion along the East Coast. Today, the third generation of the Rose and Marcus families work closely with Best Tile partners and managers while embodying a stable, family-oriented culture and a service-oriented philosophy.
The team oversees 33 locations in 12 states, under the East Coast Tile Group.
We feel lucky that the West Springfield store supports our luxury home builds in Greater Springfield and Northern Connecticut, and the Plymouth store provides supplies for our builds on the Lower Cape.
Connecting with Laplante
Karen says she has been working with our founder Ray Laplante and his son, Bill Laplante, our president, since she started with Best Tile in 1996. She built a relationship with our installer, and she says, “I chased the business.”
“I wanted to work with the Laplantes. They’re one of our best builders,” Karen says. “We have a good reputation for tile, and I know they have a good reputation for great building, so I wanted to make sure we worked together. I just kept chasing that business.”
Incidentally, the installer who connected Best Tile to Laplante is Ron Napolitan, and his father, Ron Sr., bought Marcus’s first business, Marcus Tile; Ron Jr. is still installing today.
Karen says she values Ray and Bill’s business acumen, taste, and integrity: “They are good, steeped in family.”
“They’re exemplary,” she adds. “You’re getting the best product you could possibly get with Laplante. If you want a luxury home, they are the gold and platinum standard. They have put together a team of people that are committed and loyal, and they’re the best in their field.”
