Sales of Breton CNC workcentres and saws have been good since the Italian manufacturers established Breton UK with Carl Sharkey in 2010. Breton UK has moved to larger premises twice since then and is now based in Hornsea, north-east of Hull.

The company has newly built offices and a separate building for stocking tools and spares for the Bretons and other machinery it sells. Spares are kept in stock so Andy McCallion, who mans the spares department, can usually make sure they are delivered next day to customers.

The tools for the machines are now being sold from an on-line store on Breton UK’s new website (bretonmachinery.co.uk). A number of Breton UK customers have always bought their tooling from the machinery suppliers and Carl decided the on-line store would make it easier for them (and anyone else who wants the tools) to buy them. It keeps customers in contact with Breton after they have bought a machine and Carl hopes it will also expand his customer base, so when companies want new machinery they will already be familiar with Breton UK.

Carl has also found it helps to have his own technician who has worked on Bretons to teach operators how to use them when machines are newly installed. Most of the training is provided by Simon Bradbury, who was a machine operator and is now employed by Breton UK.

Italian technicians install and commission the machines, but having a local person to carry out training makes it more flexible. Simon can spend three days with a firm after the machine has been installed, then go away while the operator gets used to it and return at some time in the future for three days more training. It means any questions that have arisen from using the machine can be addressed. It is a popular way of doing it.

The latest development from Breton is the NC300, which will be displayed on the company’s stand at Marmomacc this month. Four of the first NC300s off the Italian production lines have been sold in the UK.

The NC300 is a remodelled version of the withdrawn NC260, which was the most popular machine in the UK. It has been beefed up with a 16kW spindle and it is heavier – there are three versions, the K15, K26 and K37 and the K26 is 8tonnes.

It also has the latest Siemens 840 technology that automatically adjusts the speed according to the resistance of the stone being cut – so it slows down if it encounters harder stone. A useful modification is that the pumps for the vacuum cups have been changed to use water rather than oil, so if water gets sucked into them there is no longer any oil to pollute.

Just before Marmomacc last year Breton bought Bideseimpianti, the Italian manufacturer of wire saws, and Breton plans to show a Bidese saw on its stand this year. When Breton took over Bidese the machines were being sold by Roccia, but now Breton UK has brought them on board and Roccia is representing rivals Pelligrini.

Breton also reached an agreement to sell Waterjet Corporation waterjet cutters into the stone industry last year and they are being sold by Breton UK.

Breton UK also sells Sasso Meccanica edge polishers, although Carl Sharkey says it has been a difficult market this year with a lot of used machines for sale (some from Breton UK itself, because it is also selling used machines). It offers various other equipment, including smaller table saws, Turrini Claudio water treatment plant, Elephant lifting equipment (which it offers exclusively in the UK) and D2 Technology machines for turning waste pieces of stone into saleable product.

Carl Sharkey still also runs Laser Products Europe, selling American digital templating machines into the European market. Laser Products Europe will exhibit at Marmomacc, showing the Bluetooth version of the templater that was launched last year. The current platform for the templater is the Acer W500 tablet computer.