Stone wholesaler Pisani, a beacon of the stone industry, was close to being wiped out when its bank demanded instant payment of debts. "They took £5million away from us in 90 days," says Managing Director Costas Sakellarios, now firmly in charge as the sole operational director of the PLC.

But the company, with major depots in Feltham, near Heathrow Airport, and Derbyshire, as well as Fyfe Glenrock in Scotland, survived the crisis without having to call in the administrators, of which Costas is proud. Creditors are being repaid in an orderly fashion and the company has re-organised, cutting its staff levels from 160 to 60, improving its computer systems and completely re-stocking. It is the same Pisani… but not the same old Pisani.

In the June issue of Natural Stone Specialist magazine, Costas talks frankly about the troubles the company has faced and where overcoming them has left Pisani.

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