Cosentino, the Spanish stone company that makes Silestone quartz surfaces, is doubling the size of its factory at its headquarters in Almería by building a 500,000m² unit to make the next generation of hard surfaces, which it calls Dekton.

Dekton is expected to be launched in the Spring next year. Many different designs and finishes are being experimented with and Cosentino says it has not yet decided on the initial launch range.

Cosentino believes the new material will provide as much extra business for stone companies as Silestone (and other quartz composites) did when it was launched in 1990.

The company believes Dekton material will enable stone processors to take market share from non-stone or quartz products – and not just for worktops. Cosentino believes Dekton can also make major inroads to the cladding and flooring markets.

Dekton is manufactured using a patented combination of the technologies employed for making porcelain and float glass. The initial production target when Dekton is launched in April next year (2013) is 1,500 large format (3.2m x 1.44m) slabs a day in thicknesses between 7mm and 35mm.

The new factory is part of a k167million investment by the company, partly funded by the EU, between 2012 and 2014. That investment also includes a new ‘Intelligent Logistics Platform’ for distributing the materials. It can store 115,000 slabs and will load 3,300 of them into trucks or containers in each shift.

The Dekton development alone has cost k91million and took 22,000 hours of research and development by Cosentino.

Other investments include opening another 28 Cosentino Centres around the world, bringing the total to 90, including four in the UK with another due to open next month (November). The other new centres will focus on Brazil and the Asian markets as opportunities for growth.

News of the development of Dekton had leaked and to take control of information circulating about it, Francisco Martínez-Cosentino, Cosentino Group Chairman, officially announced its development to the international press this month in Almería. NSS was there and you can see a video of Francisco Martínez-Cosentino talking about Dekton on this website – click here.

He said: “The extension of the Cosentino Industrial Park in Cantoria merely reaffirms our commitment to the Comarca del Mármol in Almería. We continue and will continue to develop high added value innovative projects and create jobs here in this region. The new Dekton factory and Intelligent Logistics Platform confirms our commitment to innovation and international leadership, expanding our range of high quality architectural solutions and providing the best possible service to our customers worldwide."

Pilar Martínez-Cosentino, Deputy Director, added: “Thanks to these strategic and specific investment policies, we expect to achieve sales growth above 15% in the majority of the markets in which we operate.

“The United States will strengthen as a key growth market for us with 16% annual growth, following the European market with a growth of 21%. Latin America (mainly Brazil) as well as Australia are also areas where we are investing and where we expect to grow.

“At the end of 2012 we will have generated 83% of our revenues outside Spain and in 2014 we expect this figure to rise to 87%.”