The Business Journals - March 1, 2021

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TR US TE D J O U R NALI S M AT YO U R FI N G E RTI P S

FEBRUARY 22, 2021 VOL. 57, No. 8

westfaironline.com

SOLID REPUTATION

M A K IN G A N

T C A P IM

2021

BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

A

sk Carlo Vona Jr., president of Paramount Stone Co. in Stamford, if it was something of a given that he would one day take over the business that his father

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had started and the reply is quick and uncharacteristically terse: “No.” Instead, he seemed set to pursue a career in business administration and management and found time to wander Europe, where he inevitably took in the historic architecture

on view. Even so, the son of Italian immigrants was no stranger to working with his hands, having joined his father, Carlo Sr., on job sites and eventually becoming what Paramount’s website calls “primarily a self-taught

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machine operator and designer.” Vona Sr. and partner Steve Riviere started Paramount in 1991 and slowly began to build a reputation for themselves. Offering design, fabrication and installation of marble, granite and build-

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ing stone in the Stamford area, the company soon began to expand, with marble, granite, bluestone and Indiana limestone featured. By 2009 and the recession, however, the picture had changed for the Vonas and Paramount alike. “The economy was on pause,” Carlo Jr. downplayed to the Business Journal during a recent visit. “The decision was made to make a management change, and they eventually asked if I was available. I felt obligated to come back and do my part.”

Carlo Vona Jr., president of Paramount Stone Co. in Stamford. Photo by Bob Rozycki.

Going unsaid is that he is a third-generation mason. Combined with his earlier interests and the experience gained from accompanying his father, the transition was relatively painless — although Riviere exited Paramount when Carlo Jr. joined. “We started tightening things up” when he took on the presidency, Vona said. “We got lean and mean. We cut our staff way down to the point where there were just two of us. We really were only using a corner of our showroom and were doing every» SOLID REPUTATION

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