Cover story: LPE Group

LPE Group Directors Carl Sharkey (left) and Simon Bradbury.

Comandulli, the Italian marque best known in the UK for edge polishers (although the company also makes saws), is now available exclusively in Britain from Comandulli UK, which joins Breton, Laser Products Europe and LPE Tooling under the LPE Group banner.

This year has started with a bang for LPE Group. The Group, led by Carl Sharkey and Simon Bradbury, has grown on the back of Breton’s top-of-the-range CNC saws and workcentres and Laser Products’ digital scanners.

Each is sold by a separate company set up for the purpose (Breton UK and Laser Products Europe). Last year they were also joined by LPE Tooling, which sells a wide range of tools and consumables Carl and Simon have put together, and more recently by Comandulli UK, which is selling the Italian manufacturer’s edge polishers and saws – and it will exhibit one of each at the Natural Stone Show being held at ExCeL London 28-30 April.

“We have spoken to Comandulli over the years,” says Carl, “but after we had taken on Breton we did not feel able to take on Comandulli as well. However, they are number one in the industry for edge polishers and our aim has always been to sell the best quality – we’re more concerned about that than the price – so now the opportunity has arisen to establish Comandulli UK and sell the machines here in Britain and Ireland we have taken it.”

Last year, LPE Tooling was formed so that customers did not have to go to other suppliers for their day-to-day requirements for tools and consumables. You can see the full range of tols and consumables on offer in a newly published 118-page product catalogue that LPE Tooling will be giving away at the Natural Stone Show. As well as leading brand hand and power tools, it includes exclusive ranges such as the Omni Cubed lifting and handling equipment from the USA – although there is also an extensive range from German wholesaler Weha, which is now selling Laser Products Europe’s digital templaters from its depots in five countries on mainland Europe.

Another exclusive product in the new LPE Tooling catalogue is American company NSI Solution’s Seam Phantom, a system for creating a virtually invisible seam when joining parts of a worksurface. You can use either an electric or air polisher with the tools provided, which come in a handy carry case for taking onsite.

And to top it off, LPE Group now also has exclusivity on Turrini Claudio’s water walls and other dust control equipment as well as its water processing plant.

Of course, tools and consumables need to be readily available, so they are held in stock. But that is putting pressure on space in LPE Group’s two premises in Hornsea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Even having two premises is not ideal because of the time wasted going between them, so the Group is currently preparing to move to new headquarters in one, 500m2 building a short distance away in Beverley.

With three separate companies to run last year, Carl and Simon decided to bring them together under a unifying brand and created the LPE Group. That has made it easier to encompass the next new company of Comandulli UK without diluting the corporate identity.

And just one month into 2015, LPE Group had already sold four Bretons (three to returning customers) and two Comandullis, adding to the 50+ saws and workcentres sold by Breton UK in the four-and-a-half years since the company was formed.

Carl concedes that not every masonry company in the UK has the budget for a Breton but says: “I would rather not have the sale than have the headaches that come with selling an inferior machine.”

That is not to say customers never have any problems with their machines, but LPE Group prides itself on addressing those problems promptly.

One way of minimising breakdowns is to service machines regularly, and Breton UK now has service contracts on more than half the machines it has sold. Servicing is carried out by Simon and two other engineers who are among the 10 people directly employed by the four companies in the LPE Group. Simon says servicing only breaks even but it makes it easier to predict demand for replacement parts and engineers’ time.

Carl says there is still a reluctance by some companies to sign up to service agreements. And Simon adds that simply having regular services encourages operators to look after their machines better because they do not like being embarrassed by not having kept the machine clean and well maintained when the engineer calls.

The success of Breton UK has given Carl and Simon some pull with the Italian manufacturers, so when customers ask for changes to the machines they often end up being incorporated – like the new K19 version of the NC300, which incorporates changes wanted by the UK market and is now available across the world. With its X axis of 3.2m, Y axis of 1950mm and Z axis of 300mm, it goes head-to-head with the Intermac 33. The UK also had an input to the Worthy four-axes monobloc that puts Breton up against the GMM Brio.

At the Natural Stone Show, you will have a chance to see the new Breton touch control panel now being incorporated on to all Breton machines. It is like an iPod, with icons dragged into place using a finger on a touchscreen rather than a mouse. The screens can be retro-fitted to some machines, although it will probably only happen if an existing customers buys an extra Breton and wants the same method of operation across the factory.

And the Stone Show offers you the opportunity to see the latest 3D live edit version of Laser Products’ templater.

The American manufacturer sells about 400 of its units a year – 60 of which were sold by Laser Products Europe last year, 40 into the UK alone. Digital templating means measurements can be sent directly via a mobile phone to be used by a CNC saw or workcentre, so no more waiting around for pieces of MDF or plastic.