January 3, 2014

The International Surface Fabricators Association (ISFA) announced the winners of its annual awards at the association’s recent annual meeting in Atlanta. The ISFA awards are chosen by association members and given to exceptional members in the industry.

Taking top honors, the Fabricator of the Year Award was given to Fadi Halabi of Duracite in Fairfield, Calif. Halabi, a fabricator of solid surface, granite and other natural stone, quartz surfacing and recycled materials, operates his business with 10 locations in California and Nevada. He earned the award in part for perfecting his business’s color-coding process for the hearing impaired, first introduced in the automotive industry. The process allows anyone at any time to walk into any of the company’s shop locations and know exactly where in the process a job is currently.

The Associate of the Year Award went to R.S. Hughes for its program of offering ISFA members with product discounts and for overall customer satisfaction. Additionally, the company readily participates in ISFA functions and supports the association’s goals.

Russ Berry of A.S.S.T. in Hannover, Pa., received the Innovator Award for applying ingenuity to the field of solid surface fabrication that leads to the building of out-of-the-box items and projects that others might shy away from. Berry is a past board member and president of ISFA, who has given his time generously to the betterment of the industry.

Finally, this year’s Envision Award was given to Cosentino for the creation of a whole new category in the surfacing industry with the development of its new Dekton product (pictured). A new proprietary process, called Particle Sintering Technology (PST), was created in the invention of the product, which is likened to an accelerated process for creating metamorphic rock.