By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
A local business which has been serving customers for 30 years now, has recently passed ownership to the next generation.
Mesquite Tile and Flooring founders Kevin and CarolLee Parrish have retired and turned over the popular Mesquite shop to Al and Randi Fuller. At the end of September, the Fullers celebrated their first quarter of full business ownership of Mesquite Tile and Flooring. And in a recent interview with The Progress they talked about their goals for the business for its next generation.
“We are committed to staying focused on serving Mesquite and being invested in this community,” said Al. “We are not looking to grow into a regional or national business. We just want to take care of this area and keep improving on what Kevin and CarolLee have started.”
Randi was just an elementary school-age girl in 1991 when her parents moved west from Kevin’s home state of Vermont to be closer to CarolLee’s family in Utah. The warmer winters and the year-round golf season drove them to southern Utah and they first landed in St. George. Just after that move, they found a little independent flooring business in Mesquite which caught their interest.
“My dad had always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Randi said. “And there was this tiny little tile shop tucked away in the back corner of Bulldog Plaza. For some reason that caught his eye.”
The couple bought the business, then called Mesquite Discout Tile, in Sept. of 1992. And they started giving their all to this new venture. And the small business gods were in their favor. The business grew quickly.
“Turns out it was an amazing time in Mesquite with a lot of growth that was happening,” Randi said. “And there really wasn’t any competition back then. So they were busy.”
As the business expanded, the shop had to seek larger locations. Finally, they built the showroom building in their current location at 521 W. Mesquite Blvd. The business has been operated from there ever since.
Al and Randi have been married for nearly 10 years now and have three young children.
Al grew up in Mesa, Arizona and graduated with a degree in electronics engineering from Arizona State University.
Randi, of course, grew up in Mesquite and attended UNLV, earning a degree in social work.
After school, through independent circuitous routes, both of them ended up in Pleasant Grove, Utah where they were pursuing separate careers. They met at church and were married shortly thereafter.
Within a few years, though, they both began to realize that they wanted to move down south where they would be closer to family. The first thought was for Al to find another tech job down in the Phoenix area close to his family.
But then, a few years ago, Kevin offered the couple an opportunity to take over the family business in Mesquite. He and CarolLee were looking for a way to phase out of the business and eventually retire.
“He asked me, ‘Why don’t you guys think about this?’” recalled Randi. “And my initial reaction was, ‘Ha ha! Don’t hold your breath.’”
“Then when I went to tell Al,” Randi continued. “I said ‘You’ll never believe what my dad just said! You’re going to find it so funny!’ I told him what it was and he said, ‘Well, now, wait a minute…’”
Al said that he had always been intrigued with having a career where he could work with his hands and deal with people in the construction industry.
“I always wanted to do something that contributed to a community,” Al said. “I didn’t want to be just sitting at a desk. I wanted to be able to see what I could do to build something. And having a business was always something that intrigued me.”
So about three years ago, Al and Randi moved their family to Mesquite and joined with Kevin and CarolLee in the family business. They worked side-by-side so that Al and Randi could learn the business, how the company works and what makes it successful. All of that prepared them to take over the reigns earlier this year.
Randi said that the core of the local business, as it was left to them, is stable and successful. But there are elements that she and Al would like to add and even improve upon.
“My parents did an amazing job for the 30 years that they were in business,” she said. “So now it is our job to think about where do we want it to go for the next 30 years. Where are we headed? What is Mesquite going to look like during that time? How do we want to set ourselves apart from anybody else out there offering these services.”
One of these changes was to make a major overhaul to the company’s website which has taken place in the past couple of months. “We have created a website that will modernize our operations a bit, get us a little more of a footprint online and try to reach out to new customers,” said Al.
There are also plans to showcase the unique custom work that the company can do. Randi has a good eye for interior design work and is interested in providing a more artistic approach to tile.
“I’ve been working on mosaics and different tile art which will be different than you’d get anywhere else,” she said. “We want to provide those innovative options.”
“Coming here, you can certainly get a really standard layout if you want,” Randi said. “We can definitely do that. But if you want something more original; something that really speaks to who you are and what your home is about; then we can do that too.”
But the biggest element that has always set Mesquite Tile and Flooring apart will not change, Al said. That element is that Mesquite Tile and Flooring is a local business tied closely with the community, he said.
“As a local business, our installers are our employees, they are not contractors,” Al said. “We are not subcontracting out our work. We have our own artisan installers that we work with on staff, to make sure that the quality of work stays up there. And being right here local, we are always going to take care of the people we work with.”
The Mesquite Tile and Flooring showroom is full of some of the biggest names in flooring products. These include best brands of carpet, tile, natural stone, hardwoods and vinyl. The store even offers custom blinds and shutters.
For more information drop by the showroom or call 702-346-7225.
