Stone and machinery wholesalers Pisani are back into main stream machinery supply, exclusively representing Italian manufacturers Simec.

Ebor, meanwhile, have been dropped by Italian machinery makers Breton, who they have represented in the UK since 2002. Breton say they are setting up their own operation in the UK.

Pisani pulled out of their exclusivity agreements with GMM and MarmoMeccanica last year. Their former machinery manager, Derek Fretwell, set up his own company, Roccia, to take over GMM saws and National Masonry eventually gained exclusivity of MarmoMeccanica edge polishers.

Pisani dropped the machines because they were not prepared in the current economic climate to promote the marques they represented to the extent the principals expected.

However, they kept their Stone Processing Supplies division and continued to service and sell spares for the hundreds of machines they had sold over the years.

Now they have reached an agreement with Simec to represent them in the UK. Simec are one of Italy’s largest machinery manufacturers with a massive range of stone processing and handling equipment, including complete processing lines. Pisani introduce two of the Simec monoblocs on the machinery page (page 39) of this issue of NSS.

Paul Gidley, Pisani’s Commercial Manager who heads machinery sales, says that now green shoots of recovery are beginning to appear Pisani felt it was the right time to take on a new range of larger bridge saws to complement the Steinadler bench saws that they continued selling.

He says Pisani have worked with Simec in the past and have sold their frame saws to the sandstone industry in the UK. “We know the very high quality they are build to,” says Paul.

There will be a chance to see one of the monoblocs, the Fast 500, at open days on 23 and 24 June at Pisani’s Feltham depot in London.

Meanwhile, the ending of Breton’s agreement with Ebor, who were taken over last year by massive American glass product company CR Laurence to spearhead their push into Europe on the glass side.

Breton say they are setting up their own operation in the UK, which is reminiscent of Ebor’s split with Intermac in 2001. However, Breton do not represent anything like as large a slice of Ebor’s business as Intermac did.

“We don’t know yet what we’re going to do,” Ebor Director Dave Beckett told NSS. “The market’s flat at the moment so there’s nothing lost.”

“It will all be totally amicable because we want the transition process to go through as smoothly as possible so our customers are not inconvenienced.”

Dave says Ebor will continue to supply consumables and to represent Commanduli, whose edge polishers they sell.