Apex Grange, specialist suppliers to the natural stone and tiling industries, have added an even wider selection of brands to their range as they aim to be the single source for all their customers requirements.
There was a plethora of new ranges that have been added to the offering from Apex Grange to be seen on their stand at the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL London this month. Along with their adhesive ranges, Ardex and Mapei, they have added Weber adhesives to cover all their customers’ requirements.
Some of the latest products will already be familiar to the industry because they used to be in the range of AJ Lopez & Co, which closed last year after the death of proprietor Cesare Lopez.
They include the Coor & Kleever floor crystallizing system, Abrasivos Aguila diamond products, the Montolit range, popular in the terrazzo industry, and PAG prismatic blocks and munchen segments.
Neil Carter of Apex Grange told NSS: “We hope to continue the success of AJ Lopez by supplying these products to their existing customer base.”
But these only accounted for some of the new products that Apex Grange were showing at the Stone Show.
Since the beginning of this year they have also been main UK distributors for Fila Surface Care Products. In the rest of Europe, Fila are one of the top brands in many industries, not just stone. In the UK they have lagged behind, but Apex Grange boss Gary Bass intends to change that.
“We have worked along side Fila to select a range of products to be introduced to the UK market. We have carried out our own testing to make sure the products we have taken into our range are compatible with the wide spectrum of stones available in the UK.”
Apex Grange do sell Lithofin products, which are market leaders in the UK, but there are customers who want an alternative to Lithofin and Gary believes Fila will fill that role very nicely.
As if that were not enough, they have added the Tenax brand of stone glues and treatments, and at ExCeL also showed a whole new range of Akemi products on their stand.
“Akemi products are amazing,” says Gary. He picks up an Akemi coloured silicone that matches Blue Pearl to illustrate his point.
On top of all that, they have just become agents for Wedi, makers of a foam backer-board that is light weight and waterproof, making it ideal for use with natural stone mosaics in bathrooms, pool areas and wet rooms.
These are just some of the extensive range of products on offer from Apex Grange, who aim to offer a single point of contact for all the natural stone and tiling industries’ needs. You can check out the whole range on their new website (the address is on the previous page) and read more about the tools they offer on page 26 of this issue of NSS, where we review some of the latest developments in the tool market.
Their continual efforts to satisfy an ever increasing customer base, spurred on by sales executives Andy Bass and Lee Hough, saw their business grow last year by an impressive 15%.
And Gary is confidently predicting growth of 18-20% this year, not least as a result of all the work for the Olympics. Underground stations put on hold last year will also start to be refurbished this year and Apex Grange are supplying adhesives, grouts and consumables for both of these major projects.
They anticipate a strong demand for all their products, including Ardex, Mapei and Schluter systems, and a whole range of other products for the Olympics buildings, all the refurbishment work taking place in association with the Olympics and work on London Underground stations.
With their continually expanding range of products, it is not surprising that Apex Grange are beginning to outgrow their current warehouse and offices in Welwyn Garden City – just as they have done every five years or so since the company was formed in 1993.
They have moved several times to larger units, although each time it has been not too far from where they were previoulsy.
This time they hope to accommodate their expansion by taking on another unit on the same industrial estate from which they currently operate.
What they don’t want to risk is damaging their level of service. They have built their reputation on a high level of service that includes next day delivery – before 9am if required – and the warehouse opens at 7am.
To ensure they can maintain that level of service they have added a 7.5tonne and a 12 tonne lorry to their fleet to get all the extra products out to all the extra customers they are attracting. Where they hold exclusive UK distribution rights on ranges, they use couriers to reach across the UK.
And what about the future?
Gary says he is always looking out for new products to help the natural stone industries and anticipates that finding them will bring him more business in the future.
But he is contented. “For the next two or three years we need to bring up all these new products. I like what we’re doing now and I like the way we’re doing it.” n