The Owensboro Messenger Inquirer reported on an exciting announcement  from Unique Granite & Marble. Posted: Friday, December 21, 2012 12:00 am By Joy Campbell Messenger-Inquirer

Unique Granite & Marble of Owensboro is planning a $400,000 expansion that will create an estimated 25 new jobs. The 8-year-old company, which specializes in custom kitchen and bath countertops, has received word that it has been preliminarily approved for $250,000 in state tax incentives to support the expansion. The incentives are from the state’s Kentucky Business Incentive program within the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. Owner Rick Thomas said the company, at 2601 Old Henderson Road, has purchased a new warehouse and will be moving part of its manufacturing facility into it. Unique Granite has been picking up commercial customers for multi-family housing in markets that include Nashville, Chattanooga, Louisville and Tulsa, Okla. “We’ve received several large contracts,” Thomas said. “Most of the contracts signed within the last several days are for June, July and August. This gives us time to prepare.” Thomas said he started Unique Granite out of a market need.

He started his own homebuilding company — Thomas Custom Building — in 1991. In that capacity, he was most comfortable when he had control of all aspects of his business, he said. He was not satisfied when his customers had to drive back and forth from Nashville and Louisville to pick out their stone.

“We did a fabricating job for a builder here, and another builder asked us to do one, and it just grew from there,” Thomas said. Unique Granite has 28 employees now with estimated hourly wages of $14.50, according to information from Kentucky’s Financial Incentives Database. “We’ll hire about 10 more this first year, and 25 overall over the next two to three years,” Thomas said. 

Joy Campbell, 691-7299, jcampbell@messenger-inquirer.com