Andy Bell’s National Masonry stone equipment supply company have been given exclusive distribution rights in the UK and Ireland to the Marmo Meccanica range of edge polishers previously sold by stone and equipment wholesalers Pisani.

With Pisani having decided to review their position on machinery, which brought to an end their exclusive arrangements with suppliers (see NSS October issue), several companies wanted to take over the Marmo Meccanica franchise.

Understanding Pisani’s position, in July the Italian manufacturers said they would supply any UK machinery company with their range of 10 edge polishers. “We had a period of evaluation,” Stefano Amagliani told NSS.

“We had very, very good sales results and a very, very good relationship with Andy Bell in this period, which is why we decided to appoint him as exclusive dealer for this market,” says Stefano.

However, spares and support will continue for Pisani for a period so they can support their customers. Pisani sold hundreds of the edge polishers in more than 15 years of representing Marmo Meccanica and neither Marmo Meccanica nor Pisani want to let any of those customers down.

Pisani Director Nick Telfer says: “We have a long and very, very good business and personal relationship with Marmo Meccanica. We have no hesitation in continuing to recommend their edge polishers.”

Andy Bell is delighted to have been given the dealership. “These are probably the best edge polishers in the world – we believe they are certainly the most used – so we’re very proud to represent them in the UK are Ireland.

“We are going to stock a certain level in the UK – we have already tried to do that but we keep selling them before they get into stock.”

He says Marmo Meccanica edge polishers will give him another internationally known and respected brand to headline and take his business on to a new level, which is why he has decided to create a new company called Stone Machinery UK Ltd to concentrate on machinery sales while National Masonry will continue to sell consumables (see box ‘Stone Machinery UK – a new name in machinery sales’).

Andy says: “I was very aggressive in my approach to obtain this agency because Marmo Meccanica produce the most prestigious edge polisher there is and we knew it would make a huge difference to our business.”

He offered (and is still offering) a minimum of £2,000 trade-in for any edge polisher previously used by anyone who buys a new Marmo Meccanica. He will also accept other stone working machinery in part exchange. “It depends what it is,” he says, “but we rarely refuse anything.”

The approaches put his sales of the edge polishers into double figures during the assessment period and helped him gain the agency.

Stone Machinery UK – a new name in machinery sales

Having been appointed as agent for Marmo Meccanica edge polishers, Andy Bell is relaunching his businesses so that National Masonry will continue to supply consumables and a new company, Stone Machinery UK Ltd, will sell the machines.

As well as the edge polishers (see National Masonry win exclusivity of Marmo Meccanica edge polishers), Stone Machinery UK, still at the same premises in Bishop Auckland as National Masonry, will also sell the Cobalm bridge saws and CNC workcentres, Manta bench saws and all the other machinery and power tools previously sold by National Masonry.

Andy Bell told NSS: “We have separated the businesses because both sides of it – the machines and the consumables – have become too big to be combined; they have to be treated as separate entities.”

Andy says turnover this year is on course to be even higher than in the buoyant years before the recession.

National Masonry also introduced a hire service to help customers with cash flow in these difficult times and have finance packages available so customers do not have to approach the banks, who are already squeezing many masonry companies.

The National Masonry website has been split for the two companies (although they remain linked). Transactions can now be made using the sites and orders tracked.

“All this adds value for the customer,” says Andy.