Pictured on the right and on the cover of this issue of NSS is a new stone called ‘Snowflakes’ that is supplied in the UK by International Stones – and only International Stones, following the signing of an exclusivity deal with the stone processor, Tab India, on Snowflakes, six other granites and a natural quartzite.

The display above, with its Snowflakes worktops made by stone fabricator J Rotherham of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor, Yorkshire, is in the up-market showroom of interior designer Stephen Neall in Harrogate.

Free presentation folders of the Exclusive Collection, which will open up to show the natural stones on one side and a selection of International Stone’s own brand IQ quartz on the other, will be available to International Stones customers (fabricators) in the autumn. They will be encouraged to distribute the folder to interiors showrooms that they work with, so that the range is put in front of designers and consumers.

“It’s a marketing tool to help our customers,” says Mat Bacon at the Sheffield office of International Stones. “The range is competitively priced but only available to our customers. We were keen to make available from stock a fresh looking range of materials that enable our clients to offer something new, and that would in turn help to maintain margins for us and our regular customers.”

Mat says International Stones’ sales this year have shown an improvement every month on the corresponding month last year. And, he says, the IQ quartz range that is made in Spain and China has played a significant role in that growth. “Pretty much everybody in the North is producing more than 50% quartz work now,” says Mat.

Along with the Exclusive Collection promotion there will be an overhaul of the International Stones website (address below),  which will feature all the new materials.