W J Lafford in West Drayton, Middlesex, best known as wholesalers and retailers of memorials, have bought the assets of Paul Saban\'s business, The Stone Yard, in Alton, Hampshire.

The Stone Yard is best known for stonework for interiors and although Laffords have produced kitchen worktops, bathrooms and floors in West Drayton, the current move will expand that side of the business.

Alexis Sancisi, the director of Laffords who will be managing The Stone Yard, says: "We will be able to diversify a bit more so we\'re not so vulnerable to down-turns in any one particular area."

As well as increasing Laffords\' sales in interiors, The Stone Yard, which will remain the trading name in Hampshire, will also enable Laffords to expand their memorial wholesale business. "We can wholesale memorials out of Alton and better serve customers on the South Coast," says Alexis.

The purchase includes a 300m2 workshop on a 1.25-acre site with a 150m2 showroom. There is a saw in the workshop, a Jenny Lind and masonry tools. Three masons and a person in the office who worked at Alton remain there . Alexis says he will need more machinery and expects to be recruiting more people.

He says one of the strengths of The Stone Yard is a prestigious client base that they will be hoping to continue to work with. "We have already quoted for one or two of them," he says.

The takeover was concluded last month (May). They intend to celebrate the move with a new catalogue of a larger range of wholesale memorials, which they intend to have ready to launch at the NAMM Tradex exhibition in Telford in September.

The Stone Yard can be contacted on Tel: 01420 88946.

Paul Saban, meanwhile, is leaving the stone industry altogether to travel with his wife to Panama to open a bird park for tourists in the rain forest. He says he has been breeding birds for many years in this country.

"I have had 30 years in the stone industry and I wanted to do something different. I wanted a change of weather and a change of everything," he told NSS.

He said his house and his business sold quickly and that he and his wife are off on 8 June to a country they had never visited until 18 months ago.

"We looked at the possibility of opening something here in England, in the West Country, but there\'s so much legislation, insurance, planning permission," he said.

He said he was glad Laffords were retaining his four members of staff and recruiting new people. He says he leaves them a good client base of loyal customers who had come back to him three and four times for new kitchen worktops and bathrooms as they moved houses.