Mark Brownlee at Accurite has grown increasingly fond of own-brand machinery.

He has been selling his own-brand bridge saws and croppers for several years. They are made in China and arrive in the UK complete with wiring and operating system because the Chinese will not supply them without them, but Accurite strips out all the electrics, rewires the machines and installs its own software, which is a familiar enough Windows-based PC system.

Now Accurite is also importing Italian-made edge polishers that it sells as an Accurite own-brand.

Managing Director Mark Brownlee says he is having them made in Italy because they need to be a bit more sophisticated than he feels comfortable with from China. And, he says, some of the Italians are as happy to participate in the venture as the Chinese.

He decided to offer the own-brand edge polisher after splitting with Comandulli. “I wanted something less expensive because people say they have £30,000 to spend and I didn’t have anything to offer them.” He went to Italy, told the manufacturers what he wanted and chose one to make it. The result is the Accurite Compact.

It is a simple, easily maintained, sturdy machine – it weighs a hefty 3,400kg with its rigid monolithic frame.

A horizontal polisher, it has various options up to seven heads plus four bevel heads, an extension bar for wide pieces of work and extension rollers on the incoming and outgoing feeds. It has individual pressure rollers, a water collection tray and variable speed belt unit all packaged into a space-saving footprint.

The first Accurite Compact came into the UK in March and was installed at Just Tops in Milton Keynes. Chiltern Marble had the second. Now seven of them have been sold altogether. Feedback from the first two or three has resulted in some minor changes – the water flow has been upped a little, a drip groove has been added to the front to catch water and recirculate it back to the main collection tray, a chain has been added to the front cover.

Accurite has also created a significant business for itself in used machinery and has dedicated part of its extensive workshop in Ulverston, Cumbria, to refurbishing used machines. It has certainly helped Accurite weather the economic downturn of the past few years when stone companies’ investments in machinery were being made reluctantly, often in response to a crisis.

But even now, with the industry keen to make up for its five-year hiatus in investment and catch up with the latest technology, Mark says: “People are always after value for money.”

He believes that just as a growing proportion of the population is moving away from Tesco and Asda and turning instead to Aldi and Lidl, so the stone industry is prepared to look at non-branded and used machinery.

Not that Accurite has dropped brands altogether. The company is still the UK agent for Italians Denver, and Mark Brownlee will be on the Denver stand in Verona at the end of next month. He has sold 18 Denver Skemas so far this year and believes that will rise to 30 by the end of the year.

But Denver is launching a new waterjet cutter in Verona and Mark says he is not yet sure whether or not he wants to sell them in the UK. “We’re busy enough with what we’ve got,” he told NSS.

He says he will not be familiar with the waterjets, so when a customer phones up and says something is wrong the best he can suggest is that they send an email which he will pass on to Italy. It is not a position he likes to be in.

He says avoiding that position is one of the reasons for going the own-brand route. “It is about value for money but it is also about knowing about the machines. When there is a problem customers need answers and they need them this second. When I start I didn’t have a mobile phone and there weren’t any emails. Now I’m on email and my mobile 24-7. If you can’t give someone an answer they will go elsewhere.”

Denver will also be showing its new Tecnika five axes CNC saw and router. It is Denver’s most sophisticated machine yet with completely new software – which Accurite wants to introduce to customers in two hits, the first to get the machine up and running and a follow up so they can start to use more of its features.

Accurite has supplied sophisticated CNC machinery, often as part of a larger package, for some major developments by stone processors in the past year, especially in the South of the UK – Classique & Co in Greenwich, Marvel 2 Marble near Hastings in Sussex, Stones Design in Gravesend…

One way and another, Accurite’s six in-house engineer-fitters and the freelance the company contracts in London are being kept extremely busy.