Sparkling quartz has always been popular but now it is becoming more stylish as flecks of mirror are replaced with metals – just one of the developments keeping quartz at the forefront of fashionable interiors.

There has been some rationalisation in the ranges being offered by engineered quartz suppliers in response to the economic difficulties the world is experiencing. Manufacturers cannot always justify making such large ranges and the wholesalers that sell them cannot justify stocking them all.

Take Quarella, sold by UK wholesaler Granite Granite. Quarella has emerged from a complete revamp with new machines in its factories, a new logo, a new website and fewer colours. It sells engineered quartz and marble ranges – and the Flair marble range is down from 33 colours to 22, for example.

Stephen Cooper of Granite Granite says the reduction in the number of variations makes life easier for everybody and is not harming sales. On the contrary. He says they continue to increase. He also likes the new website and praises Quarella for including a care and maintenance section that can be easily understood by anyone.

Although manufacturers are rationalising, that is not to say there have not been new colours and finishes launched. There have, as the makers constantly try to give sales teams something new to put in front of customers.

But now, when new colours are introduced, colours that have not been top sellers are being removed from the ranges. It is an idication of the harsher market conditions the makers are working in.

Not only has new construction activity been hit by the double-dip recession but so have the key refurbishment sectors of kitchens and bathrooms.

Fewer people are moving house, which is when they are most likely to put in new kitchens and bathrooms, and with house prices no longer inflating there is less incentive for established households to invest in home improvements, even if the banks would lend the money for it.

For the work that is going on, product and colour preferences can be fickle. Most people might chose some variant of grey, white or beige in the end, but they often like to have rejected something else along the way.

It is the old 80:20 rule – 80% of sales come from 20% of the products. The trouble is, the rule still holds good even after stock levels have been reduced.

There is still plenty of choice of quartz available, though, even after the rationalisation, although it is not entirely surprising that the latest launches have tended to be at the more subdued end of the spectrum.

Compac, for example, has this year introduced Trend, which is a range of five greys and beiges that the makers suggest can be used in combinations for work surfaces and floors to create effects like that shown in the Paris studio pictured on the left.

Compac has two warehouses of its own in the UK, but the ranges are also sold by London wholesaler MGLW, which is delighted with the Trend launch because it sees the range as being just what the market wants. Manuel Almeida at MGLW told NSS that Trend has proved an instant hit.

He says everybody has lost some business as a result of the economic downturn and thinks Compac researched the market thoroughly before introducing Trend, which is why the colours are proving so popular.

Caesarstone has also introduced three new subdued brown-beiges to its Supremo range. They go under the names of Creme Brulee, Cocoa Fudge and Shitake.

Caesarstone, sold in the UK by CRL Stone, comes in four collections called Classico, Motivo, Supremo and, at the top of the range, the exclusive Concetto collection in 20 variations made using semi-precious stones.

Caesarstone’s Motivo collection has a patterned finish. The patterns are called Braids, Crocodile, Stripes and Lace. The Lace White version is pictured on the previous page on the walls in a project in a private home.

Caesarstone and Silestone are both trying to emphasise, through design aids on their websites that quartz can be used for more than just work surfaces.

You can use the sections to experiment with different combinations of the respective company’s products for work surfaces, walls, floors, shower trays and furniture in kitchens, bathrooms and (with Caesarstone) a commercial location.

Quartz manufacturers are now keen for their products to be seen as flooring and wall linings as well as worktops. Market leading Silestone from Cosentino is even available as sinks in some of its standard quartz colours so they match the worktops.

An alternative to quartz introduced by MGLW last year is a porcelain called The Size. It is offered as a worktop finish but being thin (the thickest, 10mm slabs have just been introduced) and available in sheets of 3.6mx1.25m without being too heavy to lift, it has proved particularly popular as a wall lining for bathrooms and flooring. As 5mm flooring it weighs just 10kg/m2.

MGLW plan to exhibit The Size at Decorex (23-26 September at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea) as a cupboard that fills one wall made from the 10mm thick slabs.

Another new name to the UK market last year was Hanstone, a quartz made by the giant Korean corporation, Hanwha. It was introduced by wholesalers Pisani.

Unlike some of the quartz from the Far East, Hanstone is made on the same Breton machinery that is used to make quartz in Europe. And now Pisani have recruited Wayne Cleary, whose background is with stone fabricators, as sales development manager to sell it.

Wayne admits that, as a processor, he was wary of Far Eastern quartz but says Hanstone is as good as any he has ever come across and it is less expensive than a lot of European quartz.

One problem processors have is waste, which can be exaccerbated if they have to buy a whole slab when they only need a little material. Pisani is now helping out its customers by creating a network so they can sell their offcuts to each other.

A new move in quartz is to elevating the glitter products. Mirror quartz has been available since the early days but is so popular that it has become commoditised. The latest versions of glitter quartz are much more stylish, with flecks of metal providing the sparkle. In the Hanstone version there is gold in the Scarlet version and silver in the Sterling Grey.

London wholesalers Stone World introduced the Stone Italiana version of quartz with metal flecks last year with Collezione Oro and Blythe Marble have introduced the Glitter range from Santamargherita this year.

The version from Samsung Radianz, sold by wholesalers the Thomas Group and Gerald Culliford, is the Noble Collection.

Another newcomer to the market is Quantra Quartz, made by Pokarna in India, again using Breton machinery. It is being sold in the UK and Ireland by Indi Natural Stone in Watford. Although it is available as slabs for worktops, floors and walls, there is a ‘Special Series’ being promoted as UV safe cladding, thanks to a special surface treatment that gives it added protection.