Leicester MP Keith Vaz officially opened the new 300m2 showroom of Stone Source in the city last month.

Stone Source are an Indian company supplying stone all over the world. The operation in Leicester is being run by Ravi Munde and his wife, Kiran.

They had a showroom in Wantage, Oxford, and Stone Source were their best suppliers, so it was an easy transition for the two businesses to get together. Milan Khakhar of Stone Source in India is a director of the UK business with Ravi.

"They were going to start up in the UK anyway," says Ravi, the Managing Director of Stone Source UK, "and they knew we would be able to take it forward with them."

 

The new premises are in part of a former textile factory on Leicester's main ring road where a new shopping centre is currently being developed.

They have 300m2 of storage space, as well as the showroom, and are looking to double that. Ravi says they have to hold stock because customers do not want to wait eight-to-10 weeks for their stone to arrive from India.

The new showroom owes its modern, chic design in no small part to Kiran's input. She is in her last year of studying architecture at Oxford Brooks University. "It was quite daunting for me because it was real. At university you can design anything - a floating building if you want - and it doesn't matter about the cost."

They are aiming to supply the stone across the UK for commercial and domestic buildings and say they have something for every price range - from £10/m2 up to £1,000/m2. Many of the materials are exclusive to them.

They can supply slab and finished product. Nearly all the stone will be processed in India - although it is sourced from 14 countries - although Stone Source do have an arrangement with a local company to template and make worktops locally.

Now they have the showroom, they have to let people know about it. The opening with Keith Vaz gained some publicity and attracted about 90 friends, local businessmen and architects. They have also advertised on local radio and in glossy county magazines.

They also intend to use the internet - they are preparing an advertising video to put up on Face Book and are having a website designed. Their printed brochures are extremely high quality to project the right image from the outset.