Stone machinery suppliers Ebor have been bought by the massive American-owned glass machinery suppliers CR Laurence (CRL).
Ebor started in glass machinery, entering the stone market with Intermac CNC workcentres in 1996. They played a major role in developing the CNC workcentre market in the stone worktop sector. More recently they have sold the Breton brand of workcentres.
Ebor say the move reflects their strength, with their directors now becoming responsible for developing the European market for CRL.
The acquisition will be followed immediately by the building of new 7,000m2 premises, due to open early next year, near to Ebor’s existing two warehouses of about 3,500m2 in Rochdale, Lancashire. The expansion will add 25 jobs to Ebor’s existing workforce of 52.
Dave Beckett, who heads the stone side of Ebor’s business, including sales of CaesarStone engineered quartz, says the Americans see the move as an English-speaking gateway to Europe and that the new premises in Rochdale will be their European headquarters.
He says the glass side of the business will trade under the name of CRL in future because it is already an established name in that sector, while the Ebor name will be retained for the stone sector in the UK and Ireland.
Ebor will continue to supply Breton CNC workcentres, Commanduli edge polishers, ADI diamond tooling and all the other machines and consumables for the stone industry that they have been supplying, as well as CaesarStone. However, plans to open a CaesarStone warehouse in the South East announced last year were dropped just before Christmas in light of the economy.
Dave says there are no plans to pull out of the stone sector.
The downturn has made this an attractive time for CRL to move into the UK. The exchange rate has made the acquisition easier and has also made it easier to buy the land for the new headquarters and find the builders to develop it. Being less busy than in the past few years has even allowed Ebor more time to incorporate the CRL systems that are being installed.
CRL like to operate in their own way and will install their information technology systems used throughout the company to manage the expansion of their 40,000-item product line into the UK. Dave Beckett says they have even sent their own fork lift trucks over.
Ebor were set up in 1981 by Steve Boocock, the current Managing Director, and three partners to supply machinery and consumables to the glass industry. They were first called Ebor Glass Equipment but dropped the word ‘glass’ from their name when they expanded into the stone market.
Ebor added the CaesarStone line of engineered quartz to their offering in 2005.
Ebor received a shock at the start of 2002 when Intermac, the Italian makers of stone and glass CNC machines that formed the main part of their business, made the surprise announcement that they were establishing their own business in the UK and dropping Ebor as their UK agents.
Ebor responded by teaming up with Breton, makers of higher value Italian CNC machinery. It was a move up-market at just the right time and Ebor successfully traded the top end of the stone industry up to the Breton machines.