Stone Federation Great Britain’s Quarry Forum gives its opinion on issues relating to the stone industry from the point of view of companies that extract dimensional stone from opencast and underground quarries and mines.
Brand Britain. It’s a unique selling point.
British Airways. The BBC. Rolls Royce. Britishness is a lucrative selling point.
Stone Federation Quarry Forum is just as passionate about promoting the Britishness of the indigenous natural stone products its members supply.
Why should the British brand, with its reputation for quality hard-won over many decades, be allowed to be used by new markets and products, keen to cash in by misleadingly adopting the established names of natural stones?
At last, something is being done to protect the provenance and reputation of British stones. And it is not simply those in the industry that feel this way.
BBC Southwest has recently featured the move being made in the EU to provide certain natural stones with the same protection afforded to the names of Champagne, Parma ham and Cornish pasties. It is known as ‘geographical identification’, or GI. You can watch the BBC report on YouTube: youtu.be/9ilMuD-85j4.
We looked at the positive impact legislation protecting the geographical names of stones would have in this column a while ago and it is encouraging to see it gathering momentum.
For the BBC, a reporter visited Albion Stone’s mines on Portland to talk with one of the Albion team about the protection that the legislation could provide to stones such as Portland, Bath Stone, Ancaster and Welsh Slate, to name but a few.
The main drive behind this campaign has come as a result of the number of foreign stones and man-made products that are being sold under the established names of British stones.
Some of the most common examples are Indian stones being sold as York stone and Chinese stone being labelled as Welsh slate.
This EU legislation would protect British products and brands from this unfair competition and the undermining of trust, quality of service and workmanship attributed to Britain in the world market.
Jane Buxey, Stone Federation’s chief executive, made the following comment on the proposed extension of GI, which currently protects food and drink:
“This legislation is very significant for the natural stone industry as it would help to deal with the issue of man-made or imported stones misleading architects and specifiers through incorrectly labelling their materials.
“Britain is home to some world renowned natural stone with a fantastic local heritage and we support anything that would seek to protect this.”
Perhaps coincidentally, the past few years have seen British quarrying companies expanding into China, Africa and the Middle East. This is encouraging for the industry as it shows that the concept of ‘brand Britain’ is growing increasingly strong. That, in turn, is opening new doors of opportunity for British firms. This is great news, especially as the British government does not provide the same level of support to its indigenous stone producers as some other governments.
2016 is seeing a number of Federation Stone Forum members exhibiting at international natural stone trade shows, such as Xiamen in China in March and Marmomacc in Italy at the end of September.
These international shows provide British quarrying firms with the opportunity to showcase not just the beautiful materials they have to offer, but also their world-leading service and expertise that can benefit the global market.