The ultimate piece of stone surely has to be the fossilised skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, which is exactly what features in Planet Granite’s new showroom.

Last year Steve Murphy made his biggest single machinery investment yet in his Planet Granite business with the purchase of a €177,000 Prussiani Engineering bridge saw.

“It was quite a scary move for us to spend such a huge amount on a single piece of machinery. It cost as much as a house,” says Steve.

When he decided he needed a new saw he flew to Italy, hired a Fiat 500 and went to the factories of the companies he was considering buying it from. Then he sat down and weighed up the pros and cons.

What tipped him in favour of the Prussiani, with its patented ‘cut and move’ system, was having met the owner of the company, Mario Prussiani. “He’s like the Enzo Ferrari of stone engineering. He solves problems. He’s really clever – an impressive guy,” says Steve.

“It was a risk. It was a massive expense but it has totally revolutionised the business with its efficiency. It will probably just about pay for itself in its first year.”

The saw was installed in the Planet Granite workshops at Devitts Green Farm near Arley, Coventry. The farm is the home of Steve and his family as well as housing the business.

And that’s a selling point. Sometimes Planet Granite’s customers have heard scare stories about granite – how it can mark and needs careful cleaning. “I tell them: you know where I live; I live here. You can come back if there’s a problem with the granite. Because I know there won’t be.”

The conversation often takes place over a coffee in the kitchen of Steve’s house.

Steve’s faith in his product comes not just from the confidence he has in his own team of nine people, but also from buying top quality stone from James Price, the UK Sales Manager for Italians Cereser. It is shipped to Planet Granite directly from Italy on a weekly basis.

Planet Granite is also proud to be a ‘Silestone Approved Fabricator’. Silestone delivers to the Farm twice weekly these days, with quartz accounting for half of Planet Granite’s worktop business.

Steve and his wife, Karen, moved the business and their home out of Coventry and on to the farm in 2008. They had a dream of living in the countryside. “This isn’t just a job, it’s my life,” says Steve. “Planet Granite is me. That’s what I’m selling.”

But behind the rural idyll is this thoroughly modern, computerised business with CNC processing. Running alongside the new Prussiani are two Bavelloni workcentres, an Emmedue Fusion saw and a MarmoMeccanica edge polisher. The company uses an LT55 digital laser templater from Laser Products Europe.

The Emmedue and MarmoMeccanica were  just the latest of half-a-million pounds worth of equipment Steve has bought from Andy Bell of Stone Equipment International over the years. And it is not over yet. In March Steve was in Italy with Andy at the factories of MarmoMeccanica and Emmedue in, respectively, Ancona and San Marino, looking at a new saw and a new edge polisher.

They will be housed in a purpose-built factory Steve is currently building on land adjacent to his farm. The buildings at the farm currently used as workshops will become a new leisure facility for Steve and his family.

These machines use a lot of water, so Steve has even had a 61m borehole drilled to give him his own private water supply.

Steve is no stranger to Italy. He visits pretty much on a monthly basis to select the best materials for his clients from Cereser’s huge stocks.

Planet Granite is an impressive company. You get a good idea of it from its new website (www.planetgranite.co.uk).

It had a decent website already but it was not responsive – in other words, it did not change size to make it easy to look at on mobile devices. And last year, for the first time, more than half of internet searches were made from mobile phones or tablets. That trend will only continue.

The site has frequently updated pages thanks to a CMS (content management system) that enables Steve to write ‘Steve’s Blog’, featuring projects Planet Granite carries out each week. He can also update other content himself rather than relying on an IT expert to do it.

A year or so ago he decided he needed computer systems to be more involved in the management of his company and its relationships with its customers.

Typical of his approach, he contacted a young IT expert, Cory Mosey of Jaco Creative, and told Cory he would employ him for a year full-time to come into Planet Granite’s premises and custom build the computer system to Steve’s spec. He would also create the new Planet Granite website.

Thanks to Cory’s efforts, customers of Planet Granite can now instantly obtain an online quotation from the company. It is tied into the CRM (customer relations management) system, allowing customers to make choices about worktop materials and features such as moulded edges and sunken drainers and see instantly what impact that has on the price. All the files attributed to that customer are stored automatically, from enquiry to installation.

The workshops currently output 12-15 jobs a week and have had no trouble keeping busy. But the new 500m2 factory will at least double, and perhaps even triple, Planet Granite’s output.

To keep the factory busy without Planet Granite having to install all the worktops itself, Steve is looking at a move into commercial projects and more trade work. “We will be able to do 30 or more kitchens a week, but it would be nice if we don’t have to fit them all,” he says.

Cory was only 17 when he started working for Steve on the computer systems, but the new factory has been designed by an even younger member of the team – Steve’s nine-year-old son, Stevie Jnr.

He produced some renditions of the machinery and the new building on an X-box using Minecraft. Two 17m gantries coming from AJ Cranes in Wolverhampton are included for handling the stone. The Minecraft design has all the machines in position, along with a new loading system custom designed by Steve and his team to make the job easier.

Steve: “I wanted to get a real feel for what the new workshop would look like and how it would function. I wanted to see the new and existing machinery, gantry cranes and loading bay. I was considering employing an architect when young Stevie announced ‘I can do that for you, Dad – and it won’t cost you anything’.” Steve is a proud dad.

Although the factory is moving, the showroom will remain at the farm. It is impressive. There is even what looks like a

T Rex fossil silhouetted in the window, which is accompanied by a velociraptor inside. They are guaranteed to keep children happy, while a pool table made on Planet Granite’s Bavellonis interests their parents.

“I wanted cool things in the showroom,” says Steve. The ‘fossils’ were cast in stone resin by Kris Lesny, a dinosaur enthusiast and artist who made the moulds for them while working for Planet Granite. The tyrannosaurus head and neck weigh 400kg. The making of the pool table is featured on an American website called Stone Cold CNC.

Steve believes novelties in the showroom give customers confidence. “They will think: if they can do that, they can certainly make my kitchen worktops.”

In the summer, when the factory has gone, Steve plans to hold an official opening of his showrooms, with some of his more influential customers and potential customers invited. He plans to have a Queen tribute band performing. “That’s when I will really be able to say ‘we will rock you’.”