International quartz brand Cambria has helped Granite Granite continue its expansion as a major national supplier of stone to the UK processing market.

All the internal walls of the offices of stone wholesaler Granite Granite’s headquarters in Basildon, Essex, are glass. The offices are modern; efficient; comfortable. From them Bernard Hogan can look out through those glass walls into the 1,800m² warehouse below, stocked with natural and engineered stone, and reflect on just how far the business he established in 2000 has come.

In their Basildon, Essex, head office at a table topped in Aberdeen by Cambria, which the American supplier of the material gave them, are Granite Granite Directors Bernard Hogan, the Chairman (seated), Sergio Ramirez, the Sales Director (left), and Peter Hogan, the Managing Director. Behind them are some of the Cambria merchandisers available for showrooms to use.

In 2000 Bernard had one phone, a desk and granite slabs stacked in a 20m² yard.

It was not long before he was joined in the business by his son, Peter, who is now the Managing Director. Sergio Ramirez, who first worked for Granite Granite in 2009 and has returned after furthering his experience of the trade with other companies, joined them on the board of Granite Granite in March when he was appointed Sales Director.

Granite Granite started selling quartz in 2004. Until then it had sold only natural stone, but Bernard could see how the market for quartz was growing. And he was not wrong. In its first year of stocking a branded quartz it added £700,000 to Granite Granite’s sales. At that time, that represented a 30% increase in turnover. It cemented Bernard’s belief in brands.

When Sergio joined Granite Granite from the company’s previous quartz supplier, it had moved on to the Italian-made Quarella. Quarella is now owned by the Chinese company Best Cheer, although the quartz continues to be manufactured in Italy.

Granite Granite still sells Quarella, but two years ago this month (May) it also started its UK-exclusive association with Cambria, the major American quartz manufacturer and innovator.

The large format Cambria slabs are slightly bigger than the standard jumbo size at 3.35m x 1.66m because they are made at Cambria’s 100,000m² factory in Minnesota to the imperial measurements used in America.

The slabs are manufactured using raw natural quartz, sustainably mined in North America. Breton technology is employed in the manufacture of the slabs but Cambria is innovative in its use and the designs and surface depth achieved on its materials need to be seen to be appreciated. Pictures do not do them justice.

Cambria, which is owned by the Davis family and headed by Marty Davis, has become an international brand, selling worldwide through reputable partners such as Granite Granite.

Cambria was founded in 2001 by the Davis family, whose entrepreneurial instinct is a family legacy that began with Stan (who will be 100 at his next birthday) and Mark Davis, turning their small creameries into Davisco Foods International, a leader in the dairy industry selling its cheese to foods giant Kraft.

Taking the successful business principles used to build Davisco, including its strict food-grade processing facility, Mark’s sons, Marty and Mitch Davis, invested in a new business focused on quartz processing and surfacing. 

Inspired by the Welsh heritage of the Davis family, Cambria is named for and inspired by the natural landscape of the UK. The brand logo of a dragon was inspired by the Welsh flag and symbolises the courageous spirit of the Welsh people.

Cambria’s designs draw their inspiration from the land, with names such as Oakmoor, Canterbury and Seagrove evoking the majestic landscape. 

Today, Cambria owns and operates 32 facilities, including its state-of-the-art production facility, and fabrication and distribution centres across the USA, as well as 11 Cambria Galleries open to the public.

Cambria also has partnerships with more than 60 college and professional sports teams, including baseball, hockey, football and tennis.

Through strict quality control, dedication to design innovation and experienced employees, Cambria has become an industry leader in the rapidly growing quartz market.

In 2016, it launched Cambria International to grow the company’s distinctive brand globally. 

It is branding Granite Granite is only too happy to sit alongside. The Cambria name and its Welsh dragon-inspired logo appear prominently on the glass walls of Granite Granite’s offices and on the livery of its vehicles, including the £160,000, 400bhp Mercedes (pictured above right) that has just joined the Granite Granite fleet of six trucks. The company also has vans in the same livery and Bernard has even had it put on to his own personal transport, a Smart car that he drives around in – which certainly gets him noticed.

There are more than 150 designs of Cambria in various finishes. You can see them all on the Cambria website. Granite Granite stocks 36 of them, which it has chosen as likely to appeal most to the UK market and which you can see on the granitegraniteltd.co.uk website. But if customers want any of the others, there is no problem importing them.

There are also many design resources available, including Cambria AR, an augmented reality app that allows users to use their smartphones and tablets to superimpose any of the Cambria products interactively on to a scan of their own worktops.

Cambria is a headline name in the Granite Granite offering but it still sells Quarella quartz and it has added Laminam sintered porcelain products to its range.

It chose to sell Laminam because it is owned by System Group, which also makes the machinery used to manufacture the material – the same machinery used by other manufacturers of such products. Granite Granite thought if System Group was making the machinery, it might be a step ahead. The wholesaler stocks 16 colours of Laminam in 3mm, 5mm and 12mm thicknesses.

Neither has it abandoned natural stone. In fact, it has expanded out from granite into marble and limestone as well because it wants to create a range to cover all price points, uses and aesthetics.

With more marble being used in bathrooms, sales are strong, although thinner, lighter Laminam that is easier to install and does not involve issues with water that requires some marbles to be carefully sealed and maintained is taking some of that market.

However, Granite Granite believes there will always be a sector of the market that will only ever use natural stones, which still accounts for about 40% of its sales. It is a belief that has been reinforced by it having just received its largest ever single order for granite. It comes from a bank that wants Granite Granite to supply 586tonnes of it for its offices in London.