Stone Equipment International has had a nice mention in the Italian multilingual magazine Marmo Macchine International, which has carried a report of how the UK agent for Marmo Meccanica edge polishers helped a company taking part in TV programme DIY SOS complete its task.

Stone Equipment International started this year by concentrating on selling Marmo Meccanica machines in the UK (read more about that here), so an international endorsement from satisfied customers is a welcome intervention.

Andrew and Katie Moxon, owners of Phoenix Worktops in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, related the story of how they offered their services to DIY SOS for the Children in Need Big Build.

They take up the story: “We were huge fans of the show so when the opportunity arose we jumped at the chance to make a difference.

“It was quite a long build up to the show and we had to keep everything secret, not even telling friends, family or employees we were taking part until the very last minute.

“However, two weeks before we were due to take part our old 2006 Marmo Meccanica LCV 611 edge polisher died a terrible death. It was one we’d purchased years second hand years before when we first started out as a business. It has been a loyal workhorse but, unfortunately, it was old, well used and obsolete, so we could not find replacement parts.

“It was game over for the machines. We’d purchased our first second-hand bridge saw from from Andy Bell at Stone Equipment International a few years earlier and found him to be helpful and reliable and the machines to be of high quality. Straight away we got in touch with him. Of course, we had to let him into our DIY SOS secret!

“We knew we wanted another Marmo Meccanica edge polisher but as we had grown as a business since we purchased our original second-hand edge polisher, we wanted to go brand new this time. We also wanted to go horizontal as we had done a run of very large islands and had one of the biggest ever booked in for after DIY SOS at 2.9m x 1.9m.

“Andy Bell was amazing!I explained we were signed up to take part in the Children in Need DIY SOS Big Build; that we would have 24 hours from template to fit to turn around the worktops, a large island, bathroom vanity and three cistern tops.

“There was no way we could do this without an edge polisher.

“Straight away Andy jumped into action. He reserved the last Marmo Meccanica LCH 711 he had in stock and within a day he had arranged delivery for the following week.

“He moved his engineers’ work around so the day after it was delivered it was fully installed and up and running.

“Between Andy Bell and Jane, who works in the office with him, the whole process was so smooth and stress free.

“Now down to the amazing machine. As mentioned, we had 24 hours to cut, polish, cnc and install all the quartz required for DIY SOS. The LCH 711 saved us. We literally turned the entire job around in 17 hours (with a four-hour nap). The pieces were coming off perfectly polished and bevelled – no need to hand polish at all. It was so quick and the finish was such high quality.

“Since DIY SOS the edge polisher has definitely become an integral part of our business. It has hugely cut our turnaround times; it has made the fabrication process run even smoother.

“The finished polish – even on the harder to polish black granite and quartz, is coming off perfect. We can’t recommend this machine enough. It’s a real game changer.

“For those other fabricators in the UK, we highly recommend Andy Bell and his team at Stone Equipment International.”