Engineered quartz has already done the groundwork of getting stone processors to think beyond natural stone. It could make it easier for other man-made products to enter stone workshops.

The latest product from London-based stone wholesalers MGLW is not stone and it is not quartz but they do expect to sell it to their existing customer base of stone processors.

It does (of course) claim to be 100% natural. The Spanish manufacturers put it this way: “[It] is composed of the same raw materials that make up granite, with the difference that impurities are removed.”

The raw materials in question are clay, feldspar, silica and natural mineral oxides.

It is made by a company called The Size, formed in 2009, and as a material for worktops and vanity units is sold under the name of Sinterlite. It is available in slabs up to 3.6m x 1.2m in 3mm and 5mm thicknesses.

It can be cut wet or dry with the same tools as those needed to process granite worktops and it can be used as floor tiles and wall cladding as well as worktops and vanity units.

It has imperceptible joints as long as they are cut properly and corners need mitreing, which might require some processors to sharpen up their act a little.

There are 24 colours in the range although MGLW Director Rogerio Moutinho says they are starting by stocking eight colours they believe will be the most popular.

They have just received their first delivery of the material and have already sent out samples to which Rogerio says they have received an enthusiastic initial response.

Being thin, it is light and it comes in at a price point that is at the medium to low end of engineered quartz prices.

One of the advantages of quartz is that it can offer a wide range of colours that are pretty consistent. The Size, on the other hand, issue the same warning that should accompany granite sales: being made from natural products, it can have slight variations.

Rogerio does not see Sinterlite as a successor to quartz or granite but as complementary. He expects it to expand the interiors market for stone processors in the same way as quartz has done.

Sinterlite is porcelain and requires much the same skills and tools to process as working granite or quartz, but there are other hard surfaces starting to make their way into stone processors’ workshops that are less like stone.

DuPont’s Corian has been around a while and is considered as a competitor by most stone companies, especially as supply is restricted to one processor in an area and most of them are joinery companies. Corian is available in more than 100 colours, can be carved, routed, moulded, thermoformed or inlaid.

An alternative to Corian is Hi-Macs, developed by the multi-billion pound international Korean company

LG Hausys and distributed in the UK by timber merchants James Latham, whose head office is in Hemel Hempstead and who have depots around the country. Hi-Macs is more readily available to processors than Corian, although given that most of Latham’s customers are wood product processors that has tended to be where Hi-Macs has been sold. It is, however, now starting to appear in stone processors’ workshops.

It is described as ‘Natural Acrylic Stone’ and supplied in sizes up to 3m x 1.4m in 6, 9 and 12mm thicknesses. Hausys say it is made from a blend of 75% natural minerals and natural pigments set in an acrylic matrix.

It is being promoted for kitchen counters, vanity tops and wall linings, although it can be used for much more, as Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou Opera House in China so spectacularly illustrates, although it is not the only major project to have used Hi-Macs.

The material can be worked on the same CNC saws and workcentres as granite but doesn’t require diamond tooling. It can also be thermally formed to create sinks (for example) in the surface of it by heating it to more than 180ºC. “It goes like a piece of chewing gum,” says Jez Bayes of Timber Fusion in Harefield, Middlesex, one of the timber product processors who have encompassed it.

Thermoforming would be a new avenue for stone companies but barriers to entry to the market are not prohibitively high. Ovens are available at around £12,000 and vacuum forming equipment at £8-9,000.

When sheets of Hi-Macs are glued together the joint is almost invisible. Not only is there practically no gap between the surfaces but the glue has the same appearance as the surface and can be finished to match it.

That does mean that any slight variation in hue of the Hi-Macs is obvious – and there are variations throughout production. However, the sheets are marked with production numbers and Jez Bayes says it is important to use sequential numbers when joining pieces.

Hi-Macs has existed for more than 15 years, although it did not arrive in Europe until 2002 and is only now starting to register on many companies’ radars as a result of a major push by Hausys, particularly into the kitchen and bathroom markets.

Porcelain and plastic might be further than some stone companies want to move from their core product but the fact that some companies are making the move indicates how dynamic this sector is, even (or perhaps especially) in the economic doldrums.

But those doldrums have hit many of the stone wholesalers, most noticeably (because they are big and a PLC that has to report its finances) Pisani, with their depots in Feltham, near Heathrow airport, and Derbyshire.

They have been going through some painful reorganisation that has seen them close their machinery sales department and lose 12 people, although it still leaves them with 100.

It has been some of their more expensive people they have lost, including, in March this year, Directors Nick Telfer, Alan Bruce in Scotland and David Kilpatrick from Pisani’s memorial wholesalers, Frank England, who all resigned. Last year the company also faced bank charges of £139,000 for interest and refinancing the business. As a result of the changes, turnover fell 1.6% although profit (EBITA) increased 52%.

Managing Director Costas Sakellarios says one of the improvements made to the business has been to reduce stock holding by 17% so it turns four times a year rather than three. They have also benefitted from being able to buy the stock of some of the companies that have become casualties of the downturn.

A new product from Pisani coming very soon is an engineered quartz new to the UK. They have not got it in stock yet, so they don’t want to shout about it. But we hope to bring you more news about that in the next issue of Natural Stone Specialist.

There is another new offering on its way from engineered quartz company Diresco, sold in the UK by B-Stone, based in Northampton. They will be offering designs added on to the material during manufacture. There will be standard designs but it will also be possible to add bespoke designs of, for example, company logos.

Christian Haven, the general manager at

B-Stone, says the new range should be available by the end of September.

There are new products promised from Ingemar following a reorganisation of the company on its home territory in Spain. In the UK, they have depots in Epping, Manchester and Bristol. Francisco Sanchez, who heads the business in Britain, says customers here will not notice the effects of the changes in Spain apart from the new products that will be on offer to them.

At MFS Stone Surfaces in Bristol, Mary Ford says they have just had a product meeting and there are new colours of their ArenaStone quartz on the way. So far this year the grey veined Grigio Venato and muted Verde Algae have been top sellers.

And while other wholesalers are concentrating on giving fabricators ever larger slabs, MFS have done well by offering half slabs. “I was talking to a customer who was buying some of our half slabs. He said he had £60,000 worth of offcuts stood up against the wall cluttering up his yard. That’s why they love our half slabs,” says Mary. “And they get free delivery.”

Beltrami have been expanding their range since they moved into their new 3,400m2 premises in Halesowen in 2009, nearly trebling the space they had at their previous warehouse in Dudley. New for this year is a range of mosaics, but Martin Dolby, who runs the business in the UK, says even the bigger warehouse is now full – not that there are any plans to move in the current economic environment.

He says having a salesman in the North and an extra lorry to deliver the orders that result has also expanded their geographical coverage.

“Generally, we’re happy with the way this year is going,” he told NSS, although adding: “Everyone’s having to work twice as hard to get the order.”

He says the five colours of 3.2m x 1.6m slabs of Conega quartz from China they sell alongside the Traffic range from Italy are proving particularly popular and that quartz sales continue to grow.