Google Honors Villa Lagoon Tile - Designer/Importer of Handcrafted Cement Tile

Encaustic Cement Tile, often preferred by Green Building Enthusiasts, continues to gain popularity in the USA

Lundy Wilder on a pallet of tile in Villa Lagoon Tile warehouse

Villa Lagoon Tile, based in Gulf Shores, Alabama, has been chosen by Google to represent the successful small businesses in Alabama that utilize the Internet in a powerful way.

Villa Lagoon Tile is a talented team designing, importing, and exporting handcrafted encaustic cement tile. It is an online-only business that relies on web advertising, email and Google's business tools. Google and independent research firm Ipsos MORI analyzed the online strength of local small businesses in cities in all 50 states.

"There's been an explosion of interest in encaustic cement tiles. Architects and designers who love our product and excellent customer service will use our tiles in project after project. ... We are a small town on a big beach. Small businesses like ours are everything to this community."

Lundy Wilder, Founder / Designer

Being chosen for the prestigious award for means many more people will now discover the beauty of colorful cement tile. Additionally, potential businesses will now consider Gulf Shores as Alabama's digital hotspot for Internet-based enterprises. The city with the highest scores in each state was designated a Google “eCity.”

Villa Lagoon Tile was launched in 2008 by Lundy Wilder, a website designer/entrepreneur. While building her new home in Gulf Shores, she wanted to incorporate the bold, ornate floor tile designs she'd seen from her travels to Spain, Italy, and Latin America. She contacted tile makers and was delighted to learn that she could create unique tile designs for herself. Wilder realized that there was a niche market of consumers who were also seeking an alternative to standard floor tiles. Combining her web design skills and love for these exceptional cement tiles, Wilder founded Villa Lagoon Tile. She began offering custom cement tiles to residential and commercial customers.

Today, Villa Lagoon Tile stocks 150 different products, some are antique patterns but many are exclusive and have been designed by Wilder and the VLT team. Warehousing over 60,000 square feet of cement tile, VLT has provided tiles for numerous high-profile projects such as Disney-Orlando, Shanghai and Hong Kong, Paris Hotel-Vegas, Hong Kong Jockey Club, and Ralph Lauren-Barbados among many others. International shipments drive 15 percent of their sales as business continues to grow in North and Latin America, Asia, Europe and, most recently, the Middle East.

"There's been an explosion of interest in encaustic cement tiles," Wilder explains. “Architects and designers who love our product and excellent customer service will use our tiles in project after project.”

The company has expanded and now has ten employees. They’ve been able to give back to the Gulf Coast community by routinely donating tiles to Habitat for Humanity. “We are a small town on a big beach,” Wilder says. “Small businesses like ours are everything to this community.”

Google has presented Villa Lagoon Tile with two all-expense-paid trips for team members to visit the Googleplex, learn, and network with award winners from the other 49 states.

Links & Photos:

Villa Lagoon Tile

     https://www.villalagoontile.com/

2016 Villa Lagoon Tile Economic Impact Story

     www.google.com/economicimpact

Additional Photos (High-Res) on Google Drive: 

     ​http://vlt.la/3n7

Twitter: @villalagoontile

Contact:

Lundy Wilder — founder/designer

lundy@villalagoontile.com
Villa Lagoon Tile
901 Commerce Dr. Suite C
Gulf Shores, AL 36542
T 251.968-3375
C 251.978-2876

Source: Villa Lagoon Tile / Google

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