Today we’d like to introduce you to Erick Calderon.
Erick, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started La Nova Tile Importers in 2004 after not really finding a job I liked out of college. I came home to Houston and started working with my dad, who had previously shut down a semi-hobby tile import company, to see how I could help around the office. My job essentially became “close-out” all of his remaining tiles and during the process of doing so, I learned a ton about the products and the industry. Most notably, I realized that the ceramic tile world was going through a technological revolution and new cutting edge tile products were being manufactured that had not yet found their way to the Houston market.
With my dad’s help, I decided to start a new tile company, La Nova Tile Importers, to bring these new and exciting tile technologies to market.
To be honest, starting a tile company was not my “dream” growing up nor what I envisioned I would do fresh out of college. I frankly had no idea what I was doing and was purely driven by a reckless but persistent entrepreneurial spirit excited about having access to materials that were otherwise non-existent locally. That set the stage for La Nova to become a pioneer in the tile industry and focus on always making the most technologically advanced products on the market available to the Houston A+D community.
Has it been a smooth road?
La Nova was reinvented numerous times along the way. The reality is that when La Nova started operations, a porcelain tile was still simply considered a cheap knock off or alternative to natural stone tile. People did not understand why a man-made “synthetic” product could cost more than natural alternatives on the market. Furthermore, Houston’s design environment, with few exceptions, was predominantly interested in more traditional building materials while we were focusing on products that would be generally considered in a contemporary, borderline industrial category.
Then, just as we were getting into our first groove with a nice community of innovative clients curious about our products, we hit a wall with the 2008 housing crisis that almost put us out of business altogether. Coincidentally it was right around this time that perception on porcelain tile was changing to where people started to really appreciate the technological properties that came along with a new breed of tile design. We somehow pulled through that to get to the point where we are today as Houston’s pioneers in contemporary tile technology from Spain and Italy.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
La Nova Tile is an importer and specifier of technologically oriented contemporary tile products originating out of Spain and Italy. We are known for always keeping up with both the fashion as well as the process innovations in the manufacturing processes for the tile world.
I am proud of our “system” and unwavering integrity, as well as all the awesome folks that I get to work with every day, both internal La Nova employees and our endlessly inspirational clients that we consider to be our friends.
One thing that sets us apart from others is that we like to mind our own business and work with clients that reach out to us with an opportunity rather than call clients asking for opportunities. Many folks in the industry, including some of our favorite clients, would suggest that pursuing designers for leads is just how the industry works. While we absolutely respect that sales philosophy we like to think, possibly ignorantly, that if people deem our products used on a project they will call us for them and otherwise we like to stay out of people’s hair as much as possible.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Absolutely! Houston is an open platform for innovation and open to anyone offering a breath of fresh air. I would absolutely encourage startups in Houston, especially in the design industry.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2325 Fannin St
Houston, TX 77003 - Website: lanovatile.com
- Phone: 713-796-9050
- Email: erick@lanovatile.com
- Instagram: @lanovatile
- Facebook: facebook.com/lanovatile
- Twitter: @lanovatile
Image Credit:
Peter Molick
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