Vetter, the massive German stone company employing 1,000 people and turning over more than £30million a year, has been bought by the O\'Rourke Group, also currently in the process of buying John Laing\'s construction arm.

Vette experienced difficulties at the turn of the year and Tom Dormer, who runs Vetter UK, said then he was buying the UK operation to separate it from the German parent.

Now the expansive O\'Rourke Group have stepped in and bought Vetter lock, stock and barrel as they put it.

Vetter won a number of prestigious contracts in the UK including part of the Royal Opera House in London and the limestone flooring at the Bluewater shopping development in Kent.