Stone Panels, Inc. - Company History

StoneLite™ was initially developed and patented in Galway, Ireland by Terence Bourke, the Earl of Mayo in the 1960's. Lord Mayo owned a stone quarry producing highly desired, yet very fracturous marble that made sales of larger sizes virtually impossible due to the instability of the stone itself. Being an engineer and quite the entrepreneur, Lord Mayo set out to rectify this problem and through extensive experimentation in bonding different materials to stone, he invented a manufacturing process by which he was able to successfully stabilize his marble. His initial discovery and associated processing methodology ultimately evolved into the manufacturing process used exclusively in the production of StoneLite™ today.

In the late 70's, a Texas businessman acquired majority ownership of the Irish based company with the goal of headquartering global manufacturing in the United States.

In 1984, a new factory was completed in Carrollton, Texas and Mr. Peter Myles, a Production Engineer with Redland Claddings in England, was brought on-board to serve as Plant Manager. Mr. Myles quickly resolved technical challenges, streamlined manufacturing processes and generally assured the cost effective production of a consistent high quality and therefore commercially viable product.

In 1985, the company was sold to a venture capital group, Adacorp Inc., who immediately moved to initiate the lengthy and costly independent testing process to secure building code approvals in the United States. Once ICBO approval was achieved, immediately testing commenced to gain European building code approvals.

Stone Panels, Inc.
167,000 sf Factory in Coppell, Texas.
In 1989, Adacorp, Inc. sold their business interest and the new owner named Peter Myles as President of the company. In 1990, Mr. Myles acquired the company, which was re-named Stone Panels, Inc. In 1995, a sales office was opened in Nice, France to service Europe. French building code approval was awarded in 1998, through the Avis Technique, which is recognized by many members of the European Union.
The company continued to grow producing panels for exterior, interior and elevator projects around the world from it's Carrollton plant until it moved to a larger 167,000 square foot facility in Coppell, Texas in 2002.

In 2004, Metapoint Partners, a private equity group, acquired controlling interest in the company and in the spring of 2005, named Lance Utterback as President & CEO. Mr. Utterback brought to the company an extensive background in architectural building products and successful track record of creating significant growth in similar positions. Under his leadership, Stone Panels has enjoyed considerable domestic and international growth while enjoying expanded recognition of StoneLite™ as the global choice for lightweight natural stone building panels.

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