There were plenty of takers for the invitation to stone wholesalers Brachot-Hermant\'s open house at their headquarters in Deinze, Belgium, in March.

The theme of the open days was \'quarry to yard\', emphasising the company\'s position as quarry owners, wholesalers and manufacturers.

Brachot-Hermant have quarries in Norway, where they extract Monzonite and Larvik granite. They also operate the Rose de la Clarte quarry in Perros-Guerec in France.

They operate four, ultra-modern processing plants (two in Belgium, one in India and one in Poland) where blocks of granite, marble, limestone and slate from all over the world are sawn and polished into slabs and tiles.

From the factories, the stone goes to Brachot-Hermant\'s depots in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland and Italy, as well as their purpose-built premises in Birmingham. It\'s a rock solid guarantee of perfect partnership, they say.

Visitors to Deinze for the open days were the first to see the re-designed Stone Gallery showroom in front of the factory there.

The Stone Gallery at Dienze has always been one of the most impressive stone showrooms around, but Brachot-Hermant believe they have made it even better with a more orderly presentation of their range of stones.

The 2,500m2 showroom includes displays of a wide range of uses of stone in just about every room of the house, including swimming pool surrounds and for terraces.

There are examples of the different finishes of the stone - polished, honed, flamed, Anciento, taille ancienne - and an area has been reserved for exclusive materials such as onyx, Azul Bahia and Azul Cielo.

The Anciento finish is a new offering from Brachot-Hermant available on granite tiles and slabs. They say they use a unique technical procedure to produce a finish that appears to be a naturally split surface that has been worn smooth with age. The procedure is even being used on calibrated panels down to 10mm thickness.

The standard Anciento product rangeconsists of Ghibli, Rustenbuild, Black I, Kashmir White, Multicolor Red, Rose de la Clarte, Labrador Blue DB, Vert Maritaca, Baltic Brown, Paradiso Bash. The finish is available on other granites on request.

Brachot-Hermant say the finish can be as an alternative to polished granite just about anywhere that polished granite would be used, such as work surfaces and floors, because all the pores of the rough surface have been filled as part of the process.

Brachot-Hermant have also made a speciality of supplying large format, calibrated slabs. They come in thicknesses of 18mm and 28mm, and some are available at 10mm with a polished or honed finish. They can be glued on to a substrate, giving new possibilities for the use of stone.

Clients and architects are often taken to the Stone Gallery by stonemasons, including some from the UK, to choose the kind of stone they like in the showroom and then select the actual slabs or tiles they want for their project from the extensive stockyard. The stone is delivered by Brachot-Hermant to the stonemason\'s yard.

Visitors to the open days also had a chance to look around the bright, well-equipped factory at Deinze. where the latest addition is a vacuum operated resin line for the filling of stone.

Brachot-Hermant will be exhibiting their ranges at the Stone+tec exhibition in Nuremberg, 4-7 June.