WHEN DONATO (DONNY) Centanni joined his family’s tile distribution business in 1996, the company had built decades of success on a straightforward model: supplying high-rises and multifamily towers across Western Canada. The sales team focused on condo projects, and the owner, Donny’s father, wanted to continue pursuing towers. It was what they knew.

Centanni saw something different.

Hospitality—restaurants, hotels, spas—moved faster. Projects needed product in four to six months, not sixteen. The segment specified higher-end materials, resulting in higher margins. Unlike towers that sold once, hospitality clients renovated every seven to ten years, and the relationships compounded. One account with a restaurant chain could yield projects across multiple cities in North America in a single year.

His sales team was hesitant. “I ended up saying to my reps, ‘ we should be calling on the industry,’ while they were content with our existing process,” Centanni recalls. So he pursued it himself by cold-calling restaurant groups such as Earls and Moxie’s, building relationships with hotel owners, and positioning the company with designers serving the segment.

Today, 85% of Centanni Tile’s business flows through architects and designers, with a strong concentration in hospitality. The client roster includes large restaurant chains and international hotel groups, and projects span throughout Canada and the United States of America. The company just completed a 9,800-square-foot restaurant in Hawaii and is working on another in Miami.

Forty years in, Centanni Tile has become a case study in opportunity recognition—identifying a segment with superior economics within reach of your existing capabilities, then deliberately pursuing it even when your team is comfortable with the status quo.

Higher Margins, Faster Cycles, Built-In Repeat Business

Centanni’s pivot wasn’t instinct. It was an analysis. Multifamily tower projects were larger in absolute dollars, but hospitality ran 15-18% higher margins. The sales cycles were dramatically shorter, and the relationship economics were fundamentally different.

“The scale of the dollar is higher, but the margins for multifamily are much lower,” Centanni explains. Where towers could take sixteen months from initial contact to project completion, hospitality clients were looking four to six months out. They needed restaurants to open as rent was accruing. Speed mattered.

The average restaurant project can cost up to $80,000, while hotel projects can exceed $500,000. But the real advantage isn’t the size of the individual project; it’s what happens next.

“Because hospitality wants something nice, and they’re redoing their restaurants every seven to ten years, you’re making higher margins. Better yet, hopefully you can do that restaurant twice in a decade,” Centanni says. The first sale establishes the relationship. The renovation cycle, seven years later, is execution. The client already knows your capabilities, your pricing, and your reliability. The reselling effort drops dramatically.

Compare that to a multifamily tower. Once it’s built, the relationship may not come through for a long time. You’re back to prospecting for the next project.

The Chain Account Multiplier

Restaurant and hotel groups don’t operate single locations. One relationship with a restaurant chain can yield multiple projects across different cities in a single year. The specifications are often consistent. The second location is faster than the first. The third is faster than the second.

“It’s almost a copy-and-paste type scenario, so you might do seven or eight restaurants in one year,” Centanni notes. A single-account relationship can sustain continuous project flow as the client expands or updates locations across its portfolio.

The economics compound. Seven restaurants generate revenue from a single client relationship, and the sales effort focuses on maintaining that relationship rather than constantly prospecting for new accounts. The margin advantage holds across each project.

Decades-Long Partnerships, Built One Call at a Time

Centanni didn’t delegate the hospitality push. When his sales team resisted calling on the segment, he built the relationships himself by calling on restaurant groups, hotel operators, and designers. The early work created client partnerships that have now lasted decades.

His relationship with one major hotel spans more than 20 years. Centanni Tile handles most of the hotel group’s properties and restaurants, but the relationship has evolved beyond vendor transactions. The owner and his son know Centanni personally and trust him to work directly with their design teams without constant oversight.

“They say, ‘Listen, this is a good spec, here’s our designers, can you work with them to get it done? You know our price point, you know where we have to be at, and you know what kind of feel and look we do,” Centanni explains. That level of trust isn’t transactional. It’s built on two decades of consistent delivery—meeting budgets, understanding their aesthetic standards, and solving problems without escalation.

When a client delegates specification decisions to you, you’ve moved beyond vendor status. You’re integrated into their operation.

Portfolio Clients Generate Continuous Work

The most valuable relationships in hospitality are with clients who run continuous projects—hotel groups with multiple properties, restaurant chains expanding into new markets, and owner-operators who handle design-build internally.

One property group that Centanni supports operates multiple hotels across various locations and multiple restaurant concepts. They employ 13 designers in-house and rank among Centanni’s top design firm clients. “They’re owner design-build, so they buy everything on their own, and they design everything in-house. It’s nice to be in-house,” Centanni says.

One relationship, continuous project flow, and no need to re-establish credibility with each job. The specifications are often similar across properties. The pricing expectations are known. The relationship becomes operational rather than transactional.

Finding Overlooked Opportunities

Twenty-three years into running the business, Centanni still maintains focus and, when he can, makes cold calls. During a random interaction, he discovered a local design firm through a showroom visit when someone mentioned the firm’s name while discussing a project. Centanni took notes, found the firm, followed up personally, and built the relationship over several months.

The firm had been operating for six years. No one from Centanni had ever contacted them.

“We gave them a call. In this case, I took the initiative to do it myself. That’s how we build relationships,” he says. The same design firm spent over $60,000 with Centanni last year. While that revenue had been in the market all along, it required someone to pursue it deliberately.

The lesson isn’t unique to tile distribution. How many potential clients operate within your service area that you’ve never contacted? Not prospects that don’t fit your capabilities—prospects that fit perfectly but have never been pursued because they’ve been overlooked.

The Approach That Wins Work

Centanni’s approach to winning hospitality work avoids the aggressive tactics common in the industry. He doesn’t pursue competitive spec changes. When someone walked into his showroom to request a specification change from another supplier, Centanni declined but asked who the designer was. He called them separately, built a relationship on his own merits, and earned future business.

“For us to get these projects, we actually don’t have to win them. They have to like our products, they’re going to like our service, and they know that we’re honest and we’re going to deliver on time,” Centanni says.

It’s slower. It requires more personal investment. But the relationships that result generate work for years.

The Expertise Behind It – 105 Years in the Room

Three people have led Centanni Tile for a long time. One has been with the company for 40 years. Another for 35 years. Centanni himself for 30 years. Combined, that’s 105 years of experience in tile distribution and hospitality specifications.

“When we walk into a room, they see that we have knowledge. With us, you get that experience, you get that honesty,” Centanni says. He doesn’t walk into presentations guessing at technical details. His depth of experience enables him to specify confidently, troubleshoot issues without escalation, and provide answers that newer account managers at larger distributors simply can’t match.

When junior account managers on his team encounter questions they can’t answer, the response time is measured in hours. “If one of my account managers doesn’t have the information, they can, within a couple of hours, get hold of me or another senior team member, and they’re going to get that information they don’t get from somewhere else,” he explains.

That speed matters in hospitality. Projects move fast, and designers need answers to keep specifications moving, and contractors need installation guidance to stay on schedule. A two-day delay waiting for technical information from a distributor can cascade through an entire project timeline.

That technical credibility creates opportunities beyond tile sales. Centanni Tile can assist with installation materials through its Laticrete systems, helping clients select the right grout and adhesives for each project’s scope and requirements, adding to the desire to work with them. 

On a recent 13,000-square-foot project, Centanni didn’t win the tile contract but supplied the installation materials for the job. The client trusted Centanni’s technical expertise enough to specify them for the installation system, even while sourcing tile elsewhere—proof that the knowledge itself has commercial value beyond the primary product.

The Speed Advantage

Centanni has fewer than 50 collections, compared with competitors that have 120 or more. The smaller inventory footprint has been deliberate. It enables faster decisions, quicker response times, and more agile problem-solving.

“We’re fast. If someone needs something, we can adapt very quickly. I don’t think our competition can do that,” Centanni says.

On a recent 8,000-square-foot project, the client approved the specifications. Then budget pressures emerged. Centanni shifted the specification from 40-inch format to 24-inch—same tile, smaller size. The change saved the client $8,000. The decision happened quickly because the team is small and experienced. No need to escalate through multiple approval layers or wait for pricing from overseas factories.

However, Centanni plans to strategically increase its collection over the next year and a half to better meet client needs, as they’re always looking to evolve. But for now, the smaller collection forces discipline. The company doesn’t carry multiple similar products at different price points targeting different market segments. They select one product at a fair price point and margin, then move on.

Competitors may offer seven wood-look tile collections priced from $3 to $9 per square foot, each targeting a different customer segment. Centanni carries fewer options, but each is selected for quality and positioned at a fair margin. “I’d rather have a good valued product at a fair margin price and go that way,” Centanni explains.

The Product Philosophy

Centanni imports exclusively from Italy, Spain, and Portugal, with no products from countries known for lower quality. The focus on European manufacturers is partly due to his Italian heritage, but primarily reflects the quality standards and warranty support they offer.

“We want that European flair. We want that European quality. We want to make sure that if there’s a warranty issue with our product, our factories stand behind us,” he says.

European manufacturers maintain consistent quality controls and stand behind their products when issues arise. That matters in hospitality, where a warranty claim on a hotel lobby floor or restaurant installation can’t wait weeks for resolution. The factories Centanni works with respond quickly and support their distributors.

Recently, Centanni Tile resumed imports from the very first factory Centanni’s father used when he started the business in 1985. Four decades later, that relationship came full circle.

“I was excited that almost four decades later, we started importing from the same factory my dad started importing from in 1985. So it was a blessing, it was so cool,” Centanni says.

The continuity isn’t just sentimental. It represents a network of factory relationships built over decades—relationships that enable faster sampling, more flexible minimums, and better support when technical issues arise. Those relationships are as valuable as the product itself.

The Compounding Effect of Deliberate Choices

Many companies inherit their customer mix, and a few anchor clients from the early years establish a pattern. Sales teams develop expertise serving those accounts. The business evolves around what it already does well.

Centanni Tile could have followed that path. Forty years of success in multifamily towers provided no urgent reason to change. But Centanni analyzed the business differently. He didn’t ask what they were good at. He asked where the superior economics were—and whether those segments were within reach of their existing capabilities.

The answer was hospitality. Better margins. Faster cycles. Renovation economics that brought clients back every decade. The capability gap wasn’t just technical; it was relational. No one had pursued the segment deliberately.

The lesson isn’t specifically about hospitality. It’s about treating your customer mix as a strategic choice rather than an inherited reality. Somewhere in your market, there’s likely a segment with better economics that your team hasn’t pursued—not because you lack the capability, but because you’ve never made it a priority.

The question is whether you’re willing to pursue it when your team is comfortable with what they already know.

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Donato (Donny) Centanni serves as President of Centanni Tile Inc., continuing the family legacy established in 1986 when his parents began selling Italian imported tile from their garage. Now operating from a full showroom and distribution centre in his hometown of North Burnaby, BC, Centanni Tile has become a trusted source for designers, architects, and homeowners seeking unique European ceramics and porcelains. As second-generation leadership, Donny brings deep industry knowledge and a passion for design trends, helping clients transform residential spaces, restaurants, hotels, and spas with exceptional tile selections.

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About the author:

Robert Puharich is the founder of IsleFlow Content Studio and author of Building Brilliance. He helps construction firms build the trust, authority, and credibility that makes them the first call, not just another bid.