While some stone and quartz wholesalers have battoned down the hatches to ride out the economic storm, others see the recession as an opportunity to take market share with territorial gains to maintain sales and prepare for the up-turn.

With an election imminent and the outcome of it looking less predictable daily there is an element of uncertainty in the country that is making life unpredictable for stone and quartz wholesalers.

The response from some of them, having made all the cost savings and price adjustments they can, is to look for growth from geographical expansion. Ingemar, for example, have just opened another depot in Bristol and last summer Cosentino opened their third depot in the UK in Gloucester. Others are also now looking for new outlets, although do not always want to make it public just yet.

Ingemar’s new depot has a 2,300m² yard and a 1,000m² warehouse. Javier Diez, who runs the UK operation, says they are trying to improve their service by getting closer to their customers, just as they did three years ago when they opened their second depot in Manchester. And, he says, prices are being maintained more or less as last year “to be as competitive as possible in the climate”.

Compac’s move into the UK with depots in Heston, near Heathrow airport, and Yorkshire in 2008, which looked badly timed then as they coincided with the economic downturn, now place the Spanish company that produces quartz composite and marble agglomerate slabs in a good position to benefit from an upturn.

One of the companies that previously sold Compac, Granite Granite in Essex, have just changed allegience to Quarella to become the Southern UK distributors and stockists for Quarella (in the North the Thomas Group are their distributors and stockists) and as an introductory offer are giving customers a £25 John Lewis voucher for each slab bought.

Quarella’s quartz has been sold under the name of Pianoforte, although that is now being phased out as the range has been split into the Living range of 36 colours and the more competitively priced 12-colour Evo range introduced last year.

Granite Granite are also planning geographical expansion by opening a new depot in Sheffield in the summer so that they can extend to the North of England the same-day-or-next-day delivery promise that they believe has helped them achieve their success in the South.

They have already added an extra 450m2 to their existing 1,400m2 warehouse capacity in Wickford, Essex, to accommodate the extra stock holding they are planning following their agreement with Quarella.

Granite Granite are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. When Bernard Hogan formed the business he had one phone, a desk and 20m² of space. It was not long before he was joined by his son Peter, however, and they bought a gantry crane for a yard in Battlesbridge, Essex, but moved to their current premises in Wickford in 2001 when they were asked to take it down again.

The £20,000 cost of relocating almost broke the fledgling company but they managed to survive and in 2006 bought the Stone Yard in Russell Gardens that they had until then been renting.

They are now on their third gantry crane, each one larger than the one before. The current version can lift 6tonnes.

Granite Granite also now run their own fleet of five lorries, two with Hiabs, and have a client base of 500.

Bernard and Peter were joined by Mark White (formerly with Henraux Spa) in 2002. Andrew Hogan came on board in 2006 and Sergio Ramirez joined them last year from Compac, having been involved in the opening of Compac’s two warehouses in the UK. Before that he was involved with Cosentino’s move into the UK.

As well as the supply and distribution of granite, marble and quartz composites for interiors, Granite Granite also supply cladding projects in London and have a large continuous tile order that has been running for the past four years. Their range of material is imported directly from Brazil, India, South Africa, China and Europe.

Compac, meanwhile, are introducing to the UK their new complementary Café and Vanille colours in their quartz at the KBB exhibition on now (21-24 March) at the NEC, Birmingham. Slabs of the quartz are available at thicknesses of 12, 20 and 30mm.

Their stand at Cevisima in Spain last month also had an interesting development for gadget lovers. Zeyron Technologies were showing a control system built into Compac quartz and composite marble worktops (see the picture on the next page). The controls turn the water on and control the flow and temperature.

In the face of the recession and in spite of currency fluctuations Compac haven’t had a price rise in the UK since they opened their depots at the end of 2008 and Tony Lleo, who runs Compac’s depots in the UK, says there will not be any until at least the middle of this year.

In January Compac recruited a new area manager for the Midlands in Richard Davis as their way of improving their geographical coverage. And there is a promise of more changes to come as Ignacio Gomez makes his mark in his new position as director for international markets at Compac’s headquarters in Spain. Tony says there are plans for the UK but he cannot disclose them at the moment.

Although Compac now have their own warehouses in the UK, their products are still sold by London stone wholesalers MGLW, run by Rogerio Moutinho. He has spent much of this year so far out of the country visiting suppliers and looking for new materials at stone exhibitions in China, Brazil, India and Turkey.

“It’s not really a matter of going to find new suppliers, but of talking to existing suppliers and solidifying our relationships,” he told NSS. “They like to use the exhibitions to show us their latest materials.”

And while MGLW have no plans to move from their SW8 premises or open other premises, they do aim to have new materials all the time to show masons and the increasing number of masons’ customers who visit their warehouse to select their stone.

Like other suppliers of imported stone, MGLW have noticed more work is coming from domestic property owners at the moment rather than developers and specifiers. And owners are often keener to express their individuality in the choices they make, which is good news for sales of more interesting (not to say more expensive) stones, but puts the pressure on Rogerio to keep finding new stones.

“There’s definitely a lot of refurbishment going on because people know it will add value to their property – maybe not now, but a little way down the line when the market improves,” says Rogerio. And he believes the market will improve, as long as interest rates do not increase too much, as confidence returns and people realise it is an advantageous time to invest in property again.

B-Stone in Northampton, who have refreshend their look with a new company logo, say their sales increased last year just as they have every year since the UK company was set up by its Belgian directors in 2005. Roger Lill, who heads the UK operation, says their continued growth is “possibly down to the relationship with our customers”. He says: “We genuinely try to make it a pleasure to deal with us.”

The new B-Stone livery now appears on four trucks because they doubled their delivery fleet last year, again to improve their geographical coverage.

Roger told NSS: “We’re obviously still in this recessionary phase but if you wait until the recession is over before you start moving you’re going to be too late. We have been looking at the whole of the business to make sure we are moving now and will be ready when the upturn comes.”

Blyth Marble in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, run an even larger fleet of their own lorries. They have 10 vehicles making at least weekly and in many areas twice-weekly deliveries to give them coverage of the whole country.

Using the delivery service in conjunction with the internet, where all the latest products and special offers can be seen, means Blyth do not feel they need any more depots (although they do have a second in Scotland).

MD Nicky Blyth says masons are happy to leave it to the wholesalers to find new products and take the exchange rate risk of bringing material into the country and stocking it. And, she says, price competition is still fierce among those selling it.

One of the new lines from Blyth Marble is a recycled engineered quartz called Second Life. It comes from the makers of the Galaxy range of engineered stone that Blyth sell to attract the environmentally sensitive sector of the market.

Another engineered quartz, Caesarstone, is sold in the UK by CRL Europe, who were Ebor before their takeover by American glass machine and accessories company CR Laurence (CRL) last year. Caesarstone prices did not go up this January. Stone sector Director Dave Beckett says: “We took the view that the market is tough so let’s try and hold our prices.”

He does not promise there will not be price increases at some time. “We have to be competitive but we also have to be realistic. There’s a margin you need to serve the customer well.”

CRL are building a new 7,000m² warehouse and head offices at their premises in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Ebor’s existing warehouse of about 4,000m² will be used to house Caesarstone, increasing the amount of engineered quartz product held there by about 40%.

Dave believes that Caesarstone is benefitting from the association with CRL because of an enormous range of CRL products that go into bathrooms. “If someone is building a hotel with 200-300 bathrooms and they want shower screens from us, they might also want Caesarstone vanity units.”

It has already happened in a big way in the athletes’ village for the Olympics. CRL are supplying sliding shower doors and Caesarstone are supplying quartz surfaces for bathrooms – “thousands of them,” says Dave.

There are new colours of Caesarstone being launched now at KBB on a stand that is separate from the CRL stand but close to it.

One of the longest established stone wholesalers in the UK, Pisani, made a £10million commitment to the market when they opened their new head offices and warehouse on a 2.4acre site at Plane Tree Crescent in Feltham near London’s Heathrow airport in 2008, replacing the two depots they previously had in London.

The 3,000m² of warehousing holding 25,000 slabs of natural and engineered stone is complemented by 1,000m² of showrooms and offices. The showrooms do justice to the stone being displayed in them, providing a comfortable and inspirational venue with kitchens and meeting rooms that Pisani are encouraging their customers, the stone processors and fabricators, to use to meet and entertain clients and specifiers when they are choosing stone and discussing design options.

Pisani have also spent £500,000 improving their largest site, in Matlock, Derbyshire, in recent years and in 2005 opened a new £2.5million depot and factory in Scotland for their Fyfe Glenrock operation there. They have two joint venture factories in India processing 70,000m² of stone a year and their own Vratsa limestone quarry in Bulgaria.

Pisani are trying to move taste on from the more recognised colour choices. It is why they have created such impressive displays of unique and exotic stones at Plane Tree Crescent. And they believe they are succeeding.

Pisani Director Nick Telfer does not deny sales have been hit by the recession, but believes they have held up better than expected thanks to their move to Feltham. “We’re cautiously optimistic,” he told NSS.

He has no doubt that this year and next will remain tough, although he says the year has got off to a promising start. “People have got used to the new environment and a lot of our product goes into homes that are relatively unaffected by recession.

“What’s interesting is that there’s been a shift of our customers’ client profile from developers much more towards the end user. When the end user visits us they become aware of many more materials than they have been used to being offered.

“We’ve had more than 5,000 people through the door in Feltham in just over a year. These are clients of our customers and they are amazed at the choice.”

Pisani have always had a reputation for being responsive to the needs of their customers and it is a reputation that has been enhanced by the recession, helping people to trade through difficulties.

Nick does not want to make too much of that because he does not want to encourage customers to take advantage, but he says: “We don’t insure our debts and we don’t factor them. We deal with the customer. It enables us to be responsive to people’s problems. There are ways and means of helping them through difficulties as long as they are genuine and honest with us. We’re there to help people carry on trading.”

Pisani have also been trying to promote stone more to the end user. They do not want to sell to the consumer and refer leads on to fabricators, but they feel stone has lost out to the heavy promotional activity of the man-made quartz manufacturers. They tried to redress the balance to some extent in September by taking a stand at the 100% Design exhibition in Earls Court.

“Toes in water,” says Nick, but it helped get the message out to the design community that Pisani could help them with stone selection and “loyal customers will appreciate that we are directing business their way”.

A completely different approach to the market is taken by Affordable Granite & Marble (AGM) in a former quarry not far from Pisani’s Derbyshire depot. They do not give their trade customers credit, do not normally deliver and they template, make and fix in their local area.

The company is owned by Mark Holmes, who appointed Peter Jordan-Turner as his assistant last year so that he could spend more time in New Zealand with his family and running another business there selling stone shower trays and tiles.

Peter Jordan-Turner says economically it has been a tough six months since he joined, but harder on the retail side than on the wholesale side. “On the retail side you have so much more to do to land the business,” he says, “whereas with wholesaling you just pile it high and sell it… not exactly cheap but at the right price.”

AGM aim to get good quality everyday materials such as the black granite they buy exclusively from two suppliers in India who they say do not supply anyone else in the UK. And they do pile it high on their 4.5acre site with the aim of never being out of stock when fabricators might have driven 100 miles or so to collect it.

They are currently building up stock in Derbyshire ready for the opening of a new depot further South between Watford and Woking. When they conclude the deal they want to fill the unit straight away and start trading, not wait a couple of months for the stone to arrive at the docks. At first, at least, the new depot will supply trade only, although it could end up with a showroom and retail sales as well. Peter hopes to have the depot up and running in June.

He was recruited by AGM from outside the stone industry and says: “I didn’t realise how much competition there is at the price driven end of the market. We try to sit in a comfortable place where we make a living and our customers get a good deal. We can do that because we don’t have any debt and our overheads are relatively low.”

He says the trade wants to know what AGM have in stock so they can sell what’s available and they are increasingly expecting to be able to find out on the webiste. It is an issue Peter is addressing and a new trade area is being developed on the website. It is expected to launch towards the end of next month (April).

One company that says they are continuing to enjoy spectacular success are north London Turkish stone wholesalers Stonecrest Marble. Their year starts in July and they say they are on target for a 50% increase in sales this year on top of a 70% increase last year, thanks to the supply of stone for projects such as Barclay’s Bank boss Sir Peter Middleton’s house, where they delivered 1,500m2 of Limra limestone and Crema Nova, and David Beckham’s house in the South of France. Stonecrest supplied Stone Europe who carried out the work there, as well as 500m2 of engineered quartz for the Beckham’s ‘Beckingham Palace’ home in the UK. A major part of their business is supplying Turkish stone tiles to distributors and retailers all over the UK.

To accommodate their growth, Stonecrest are planning to move out of their current 800m² warehouse with its associated showroom and into new, 2,500m² premises this year.

Most of what Stonecrest sell are tiles, although with their move they plan to stock more slab as well.

Stonecrest were started seven years ago by Murat Yurtseven and his brother Bill. Murat was an estate agent and Bill a tile fitter. They were born in England but had family in Turkey who were able to help them find a partner in Turkey to supply their stone. They stock travertine, marble and limestone and, says Murat: “We have some unique materials. It’s very good quality at very competitive prices.”

That must have helped, but Murat attributes their success to problem solving. He says he and his brother used to work in an exclusive shoe shop with demanding customers. “We learnt to deal with problems quickly and effectively and give them what they want.”

Of course, not all the companies supplying stone in this country actually keep stocks here. Chinese company Jetboat have managed to make a successful business supplying the stone industry in the UK from China.

Buying from China is not such a rareity these days but it can still be daunting and there are plenty of stories of those who have bought from China from a company they found on the internet not ending up with what they thought they had ordered.

Because Jetboat have made a speciality of supplying the UK, they are used to dealing with UK companies and are aware of the requirements of UK buyers, especially regarding quality. “It is the principle and practice that we at Jetboat company always insist on,” says Sales Manager Tony, who does not try to use a second name.

They select the stone so it is consistent in terms of veining and colour, calibrate it and cut it to regular sizes. They also pack it carefully so it does not get broken in transit.

If finished work is ordered, it will be marked so that it can be installed in the correct order as required. “All the energy, time and cost saved with our products will be significant to masons, contractors and final clients,” says Tony. “Saving is one of the great helps in these difficult times, isn’t it?"

Cosentino: proud to be green

Spanish stone and quartz composite company Cosentino, who make Silestone and now have three outlets in the UK following the opening of their third in Gliuycester last year, have not only spent Euro4.5million developing the premium recycled composite called Eco, with prices that start at Euro400/m2, they have also put a lot of effort into reducing the environmental impact of their quarrying and manufacturing process through the ISO 14001 standard that they have achieved.

They say that the market for green products is growing exponentially and that the growth of Cosentino is directly linked to its green practices that respect, protect and rebuild the environment – from sourcing materials through to product manufacturing and distribution.

Cosentino’s work on reducing the impact of their factory in Spain includes: minimizing dust emissions in all phases of production; purifying 99% of volatile organic compound (VOC) factory emissions; optimizing water usage through water reclamation processes that allow the company to use 94% recycled water in production processes; and pursuing restoration and mountain reforestation of the quarries they own under strict stewardship programs.