Engineered quartz has probably doubled the size of the kitchen worktop market for granite processors and has thrown out a lifeline in the current economic downturn. But what next? More innovations? A price war? Both?

Engineered quartz might all be made in the same way on (mostly) the same Breton machinery, but various patents have been taken out on modifications and additions to that machinery by the quartz makers as they seek to differentiate their brands from each other.

Endless colour variations, new finishes, the inclusion of recycled materials, guarantees, uses in celebrity kitchens, press coverage… the marketing of the brands has been relentless. And it has worked.

The quartz-makers’ claims for the market share achieved by quartz might be as over-hyped as the claims they have made about the benefits of their materials compared with granite – but that is only a bit and only in some cases.

There are no independent figures to verify sales of quartz. And even if there were it wouldn’t help to determine their market share because there are no reliable figures for the sales of granite worktops. Nevertheless, the anecdotal evidence would suggest that quartz has roughly doubled the amount of work going through the factories of stone processors in the sector.

The hype for quartz is understandable because a price point above that of most granites has to be justified. But quartz will mark if a very hot pan is put on it. The colour might fade in strong sunlight. Given enough abuse it can scratch and be damaged. It is true it does not have the visual variations of natural stone (unless it is intended to) but there can be batch differences in pigmentation that are only too apparent when two slabs are butted together. And there can be manufacturing faults that only become apparent when the slabs are sawn or installed.

Granite has its own limitations, of course, and they vary depending on the granite, whereas quartz is at least less unpredictable.

The quartz market is competitive and is becoming more competitive as more of the manufacturers look for sales in the UK. But the competition is not necessarily price-led.

At the top end, Cosentino’s Silestone, Caesarstone, Quarella and the other established brands, including the Radianz brand from Samsung that came into the UK last year, have worked hard to distinguish themselves with processors, designers and clients.

The point of a brand is that if it is specified it will, with any luck, be used, not substituted for something cheaper. And as long as the specification is not altered, the customer will not be able to shop around to find a cheaper source of the material chosen.

That is precisely the point that Essex stone wholesalers Granite Granite made when they took on distribution of Quarella quartz products (sold under the Living and Evo names) last year. As Managing Director Bernard Hogan says, if Absolute Black Granite is specified the processor can tour the wholesalers to find the best price for the quality required, but if a Living or Evo product is specified it has to come from Quarella.

But while the brands are still looking for sales further up the market where price is often less sensitive, others have taken the view that quartz is essentially a commodity and price is paramount.

Of course, at almost any price point the price is important if the buyer does not believe there is any difference between one maker’s product and another’s, which is why the brands put so much effort into distinguishing their products.

Pisani are taking a different view. From the beginning of September they are introducing Hanstone quartz, a brand made in Korea and the USA that they believe is as good as any other brand even though it is 10-20% less expensive.

Pisani used to sell Quarella, and Costas Sakellarios, the Managing Director of Pisani, says the Italians are “fantastic people at making something that’s a standard technology into something that’s very, very stylishly sold”. He sees no reason why quartz should carry the price premium it does.

We hope to bring you more details of the range in the next issue of NSS.

Nevertheless, as processors have become familiar with quartz products they generally have developed preferences and do discern a difference in quality between the materials available.

Although quartz is all produced in the same way, normally on the same Breton machinery, there are a great many different resins and pigments used, plus all kinds of additional minerals to create different effects. Even the quartz can vary. The manufacturers are secretive about their mixes and are even nervous about photographs being taken of their plant.

Even so, when it comes to blacks, whites and some of the more popular colours, and particularly at the lower end of the market, price is an issue and some of the wholesalers who supply the branded ranges also offer an inexpensive generic alternative.

At the low end of the market, the Far East is now a significant force, particularly China, although the Chinese had to build their own production lines because Breton were put under pressure from their Western customers not to sell the technology to them. The West didn’t want the market to be flooded with cheap material.

Dave Beckett, the Director of CRL Stone responsible for the Caesarstone quartz that they distribute in the UK, puts it this way: “If Mrs Smith has chosen quartz for her kitchen, then discovers her cleaner’s got it in hers, Mrs Smith decides she doesn’t want it any more.”

Caesarstone takes its name from the ancient Roman Israeli city of Caesarea, near to which the company was founded in 1987. Their latest effort to keep themselves at the front of the market is a product called Supremo.

The first slabs of Supremo were due to arrive at CRL Stone’s headquarters in Rochdale this month (August). It has a crazed effect look created using Caesarstone’s own, patented method. It will be officially launched at the 100% Design exhibition in Earls Court, 22-25 September.

Price-wise, Supremo sits just above the everyday Classico range.

At the top of the Caesarstone range is the wildly expensive Concetto, with slabs made from individually cut and bound semi-precious stones and costing as much as £10,000.

Another of the brands is Stone Italiana, sold by Stone World in Park Royal, London. The latest from them is the Ora collection introduced in Verona last year. It is not in the £10,000 league, but it is at the top of their range. There are four, sparkling colours – light and dark grey, dark brown and a gold colour from which the collection takes its name.

According to Stone Italiana, the Ora collection has the “essence of luxury and exclusivity”. Stone World Director Bina Agarwal says for customers to choose it they really need to want something different. She says sales have been limited but that new ranges often take time to catch on. Nevertheless, the place for them to do so is London because the capital is populated by people from all over the World and tastes in London are more cosmopolitan than in the country as a whole.

Last year’s newcomer, Radianz from Korean multinationals Samsung, have taken some steps towards their stated aim of becoming the top selling brand in the UK, although still have some way to go.

Radianz is now distributed by the Thomas Group in the North and Gerald Culliford in the South. Cullifords used to sell Quarella, but say the marketing support and supply of Radianz is impressive, the quality high and the price point competitive. They say Samsung offer a fantastic range of colours, including the Noble range, and have jumbo slabs as a standard.

The Thomas Group were also Quarella distributors before taking on Radianz but they have not dropped Quarella. Director Jamie Thomas says Radianz is their main product and sales of it have gone well, considering the current climate. But Quarella has been around longer and has made inroads to the commercial market that the Thomas Group do not want to forfeit.

Not that Samsung have not also attacked the commercial market – they have approached other multinationals such as Starbucks to win contracts at an international level.

“It’s early days for Samsung,” says Jamie. “It was a soft launch, done step by step. The fabricators were trained up while stocks of Radianz were brought into the country. They didn’t want to fall flat on their face.

“It’s been a new experience for us… dealing with this large Far Eastern enterprise. When they decide to do something it’s done at a level which is impressive, although things can take a while sometimes to get actioned.”

Radianz was exhibited alongside other Samsung products – including Staron solid surfaces and Samsung electrical equipment – at the KBB exhibition at ExCeL in May. Last year Staron and Radianz jointly sponsored the ‘Most Sustainable Practice’ competition in the Architect’s Journal AJ100 business network club. And their advertising is using their already established reputation in electronics to communicate brand values in quartz and solid surfaces.

Some masonry companies have already added solid surfaces to their product mix. It represents a different way of working for them but, as Jamie Thomas says, 25 years ago the development of granite for worktops was novel.

The Thomas Group did approach Samsung to become a distributor of Staron, but Samsung preferred to establish their own Staron UK operation in the UK – it is in Newcastle. The Thomas Group work alongside them when the opportunity arises.

While Samsung might aspire to make Radianz number one, Spanish company Cosentino Silestone is, and does not seem about to concede the position lightly.

They are thinking big. The latest Silestone Nebula collection of six colours they launched in April was, they say, inspired by the universe. Where do you go from there?

The source of their inspiration is the nebulae of space – those interstellar clouds of dust and gas out of which stars and planets coagulate – and their creation in quartz has apparently been made possible by the latest technological advances.

The six colours of the Silestone Nebula series – Altair, Cygnus, Doradus, Lagoon, Lyra and Merope – have, they say, been achieved through an extensive research and development process to create deep base colours with warmth and fluidity through the uniform threads of colour.

Silestone has also this year become the exclusive quartz worktop of choice for In-toto Kitchens, with their 50 showrooms nationwide.

Christophe Gontier, managing director for Cosentino in the UK, says: “We’re very proud of our collaboration with In-toto kitchens. Both brands offer customers innovative designs, exceptional quality and great breadth of choice.”

In-toto studios will display and sell all Cosentino products, including the Integrity sink formed in Silestone quartz.

And to expand out of the kitchen into bathrooms, Cosentino have developed a range of shower trays and sinks moulded in Silestone. There are eight sink designs and seven shower trays in various sizes to match Silestone slab products and promote the use of Silestone on walls, floors and vanity units in bathrooms, which was a fast-growing market for stone processors before the 2008 economic crises.

Bathrooms are just one of the areas that quartz manufacturers are looking to expand into. Quartz has been most successful as kitchen worktops and while that market continued to grow rapidly, as it did until the crash, it was able to accommodate the expansion of the market. But with housing not looking as if it will pick up significantly any time soon, the makers of quartz slabs are now looking more closely at other uses for the material as floor and wall coverings, as well as expanding its use in the commercial sector.

Diresco’s move in this direction is to offer a bespoke service adding surface designs such as company logos. They expect the designs to be added particularly when slabs are used as wall linings in company’s public areas.

Diresco is sold in the UK by B-Stone, based in Northampton and headed by Christian Haven. The designs are sand-blasted on to the finished slabs of quartz in the same way as designs and inscriptions have been sandblasted on to granite memorials for decades. The surface can then be polished using diamond brushes.

As well as the bespoke service, there will also be a range of standard designs that will be making their way into B-Stone’s warehouse shortly.

A company that was planning to go national last year was Seieffe UK, formed by the Italian Seieffe company to sell their Okite quartz surfaces in Britain. But the move out of their Southern base that was supposed to include opening a warehouse in the North didn’t happen.

Marco Coffe, who runs the UK operation, told NSS that because sales had started increasing significantly in London and the South East the move North was put on hold. “This year has been 30% better than last year,” he said. With the extra workload in the South he did not want to spread his resources too thinly by moving into the North.

Other suppliers have also noted that business has grown this year in London. It has often been said that London is a different market to the rest of the UK because it is one of the centres of the world in which the richest people want to own property. Nevertheless, trends that start in London often spread to the rest of the country and no doubt there will be plenty of finger crossing about that in the months ahead.

The next move by Seieffe to differentiate their product range is promised for Marmomacc, the stone exhibition in Verona on 21-24 September. It is another attempt at making a translucent quartz. The aim is to produce a tough material to compete with onyx. Seieffe thought they had cracked the problem last year but ran up against colour fastness problems. They believe they have now solved those problems.

The quartz manufacturers have always been quick to spot a marketing opportunity and they have not missed the chance to associate sustainability issues with their products. Several are now using waste – often manufacturing waste, which is less contaminated than consumer waste – in the products (Cosentino’s Eco range, Quarella’s Evo range, the DuPont Zodiaq Terra collection, Second Life from Santamargherita, who make the Traffic Stone quartz that Beltrami sell… there are others).

An easy standard for quartz to achieve is America’s Greenguard clean air standard, which basically confirms that nothing nasty is emitted from the material. Several of the quartz ranges carry the Greenguard certificate and no doubt the logo on products is a comfort factor for customers and perhaps diverts attention from any concerns there might be about the petrochemical industry’s resins being used in the manufacturing process, although Compac have even addressed that. They have introduced the Nature Collection worksurface range manufactured using vegetable based resins.

In the UK, sustainability seems to focus on waste and water use reduction and quartz stacks up well on those criteria.

Most quartz manufacturers produce three thicknesses of material as standard (12-13mm, 20mm and 30mm) and have gone into jumbo slab production – slabs of more than 3m x 1.2 or 1.6m – to maximise the proportion of finished product (or minimise the waste) as well as making it possible to produce large island units for kitchens.

MFS Stone Surfaces in Bristol have taken an opposite view. Not only do they not stock jumbo sizes of the ArenaStone they sell, they saw slabs in half for their customers so fabricators are not left with a lot of offcuts.

Mary Ford, in charge of sales, says they do occasionally get asked for jumbo slabs but their customers more often appreciate being able to buy half slabs and receive the same level of service for small orders as for larger orders.

As the bathroom market has opened up for natural and engineered stone, marble is coming back into fashion and several of the quartz manufacturers are incorporating new marbled effects into their ranges.

Seieffe make a big play of the patented marbling effect they achieve in their Okite quartz but other manufacturers have also achieved a similar effect, while Compac are now relaunching their marble tile range with three new colours. The range has marble instead of quartz mixed with resin.

With practically zero porosity, Compac’s engineered marble avoids the problems of staining that can be associated with untreated natural marbles. It is hygienic, easy to clean and maintain and has the uniformity of colour of a man-made product, so large surfaces can be covered without breaks or differences in colour tone being noticeable.

However, like natural stone, Compac’s technological marble can be polished to maintain its shine and original appearance.

And it is not just for vanity tops. It can be used for floors, walls, staircases, fireplaces, door frames, even building façades. And it is suitable for high footfall areas such as airports, railway stations, and shopping malls.

The three new colours that are accompanying the relaunch are White Faraya, Beige Faraya and Nubia Fog. They will be available from the beginning of September in polished, matt, bush hammered and eggshell / leather texture finishes. They come in standard sizes (600x70mm, 600x400mm, 600x600mm and 1000x300mm) and thicknesses of 12, 20 and 30mm.

MOVING ON

Most quartz manufacturers offer their materials in 13, 20 and 30mm thicknesses, but Granite Transformations have made a business out of supplying glass reinforced backed slabs of just 1/4in (6.35mm) thick that can be stuck on top of existing surfaces.

Granite Transformations was founded in 1996 by Bob Smith and Colin McKenzie in Perth, Australia. Bob was renovating his kitchen and Colin McKenzie introduced him to some granite-like floor tiles imported from Italy.

The two realised the material would be ideal for low-cost kitchen conversions by putting the material over existing surfaces. They approached Trend, the Italian manufacturers, and made an exclusive deal for the material to be produced in slabs.

They expanded in Australia and New Zealand, went to the USA in 2001 and came to the UK in 2004. They now have more than 30 franchises in the UK, with the products displayed in showrooms and processed in workshops. The franchisees and their sub-contractors sell, template and fix the surfaces. The material is cut like any quartz using a wet saw.

This season’s new colours from Granite Transformations are three veined surfaces, two metallics and three earthy tones in slabs 3m x 1.25m. The additions take the choice of surfaces to more than 60 and are intended to help push the material out from the kitchen into bathrooms and commercial premises and expand the customer demographic from the over-45 home owner that has dominated until now.