CaesarStone quartz worktops are to be supplied in the UK and Ireland exclusively by machinery and tools company Ebor Equipment.

The two companies say this partnership is almost a natural progression as CaesarStone is a Breton product and Ebor are the exclusive UK and Ireland agent for Breton CNC machinery.

Ebor recently bought out their venture capitalist backers (see the previous issue of NSS) and said then that a £50,000 investment in new stock-handling equipment had left them with vacant floor space that managing director Steve Boocock said would soon be filled with new lines.

Ebor\'s activity in natural stone covers the supply of machinery, tools and consumables. That goes largely to customers who produce marble and granite tops for kitchens, bathrooms and other domestic/commercial applications, fireplace surrounds in marble, sandstone and limestone and memorial headstones in granite and other materials. These are precisely the customers that CaesarStone caters for, say Ebor.

Quartz surfaces are entirely imported and the demand for them from the stone industry is increasing rapidly.

Ebor are offering CaesarStone Approved Fabricator status to companies demonstrating their ability to process the material to a high standard.

The material will be distributed from Ebor\'s 1,850m2 warehouse in Rochdale, which has been adapted, initially, to hold around 2,000 slabs of 20mm or 30mm thick.

Ebor\'s stone division director, David Beckett, says their sales and technical team based in both the UK and Ireland will carry out sales and technical support. "We are willing to work closely with customers, both in the form of technical support and as a partner to promote the use of CaesarStone in all its different applications," he says.

"Promotional activity will aim to attract architects, interior designers, kitchen and bathroom designers, fireplace designers and furniture designers. This will be done through direct mailing, media advertising and exhibitions. We will also be initiating an intensive campaign to target end-users to create an increased demand from the market."