Happy Birthday to Us!!
Artelye is an American family-owned and operated business that strives to hand select only the very best natural stone and quartz for our clients. We take pride in each and every countertop we custom create. We are passionate about our product and the relationships we form daily.
Twenty years ago this month, Artelye was born. We are happy to say that our “child” is now fully grown and thriving. It brings tears to our eyes to think of all the memories, a few of which we would love to share with you.
In 1996, Josh Yoltay, originally from Turkey, was finishing his MBA at Millsaps college. Some friends from his home country asked if he could help find vendors to sell Turkish Travertine floor tiles. Josh, along with his wife Elaine, did some research and realized there was a large demand for these natural stones and very few suppliers. That’s when they realized this was a perfect opportunity go into business! They joined with two other partners and chose the name Artelye Marble and Granite, a play on the French word “atelier,” which they believed meant “craftsman.”
Starting out in their 600 square foot apartment in Towson, Maryland, Artelye grew very quickly; by 1999, the company had expanded enough to plant roots in our current location on Bacon Drive. The space was 15,000 square feet, which allowed us to begin importing granite slabs. At that time, Artelye employed four people and serviced a 50 mile radius.
After a few years, Artelye made a change to their business plan, bought out one of the partners, and became both an importer and fabricator for both retail and wholesale. This allowed us to control how our stone was cut and we developed a stronger relationship with our residential and commercial clients, which fueled our success and growth.
As we added more customers, we also expanded our abilities. In 2003, we purchased our second bridge saw, an edge machine, and improved our workstations and job flow. By now we were up to 20 employees and serving a 100 mile radius.
The ensuing years brought even more expansion and new technology: in 2005 we added water jet machines, which greatly increased our job volume, doubled our interior space to 30,000 square feet, and added 8,000 square feet of outside space. Other important additions to our capabilities included SlabSmith technology, CAD production, and Proline templating.
Flash forward to the present, when Josh and Elaine consolidated ownership and added a 10,000 square foot warehouse for our commercial tile division, AMG Tile + Stone. We also opened up a secondary retail showroom and production shop in Raleigh. Artelye now serves eight mid-Atlantic states, has 135 employees, and works with more than a hundred subcontractors.
Over the years, we’ve had many wonderful clients and projects. One of our biggest jobs was installing tiles and tops for Tysons hotels and our strangest? Well, we once had a contract with a government agency we can’t name at an address we can’t disclose. In fact, it was so secretive, we couldn’t even tell our employees who they were or where it was located!
The future is bright for Artelye. Residential customers in the greater Baltimore/Washington/Raleigh regions are invited to visit our Showrooms in Beltsville and Raleigh.
Artelye serves new construction home builder markets in Maryland, District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, southern Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and lower New York.
“Do it once, do it right” has always been our mantra – our clients’ satisfaction is our eternal goal.
We look forward to serving you for the next twenty years and beyond!
