Northamptonshire hard landscaping stone supplier Stone Plus UK has been placed into Administration. The Administrators, Jo Hammond and Gareth Rusling of Begbies Traynor in Sheffield, are looking for a buyer.

Stone Plus is in Mawsley, Kettering. It supplies a range of natural stone, porcelain and concrete landscaping products, and also has distribution rights for Oakdale Greenscaping and Irish McMonagle Stone for the south of England.

The administrators say the company experienced financial difficulties due to shipping problems and cashflow pressures that led to significant debts accruing, making the business unviable.

Stone Plus has three employees who are being made redundant.

Business advisor Eddisons has been appointed to sell the business and its assets.

Marshalls, which now includes the roofing Marley Group that it bought last year, has warned in a trading update for the four months to the end of April that group revenue contracted 14% on a like-for-like basis compared with last year.

Marshalls, headquartered in Elland, West Yorkshire, says the fall reflects the uncertain macroeconomic climate, a fall in new house building and continued weakness in private housing repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI).

Marshalls’ update says: “In the first quarter of the year, National House Building Council new housing starts were 27% lower than 2022, which had an impact on the performance of all the group’s reporting segments. 

“Management have acted quickly to reduce costs in the business and are accelerating plans to improve production efficiency, while ensuring flexibility to respond when market demand improves.”

While revenue for the four months ended 30 April was £227million – year-on-year growth of 12% – that includes the contribution from Marley this year that was not there last year.

Marshalls Landscape Products experienced tough market conditions due to its exposure to new house building and domestic RMI to achieve a revenue of £110million compared with £140million in the same period of 2022 – a fall of 21%. 

Marshalls Building Products delivered a revenue of £55million against £61million last year, down 9%, while Marley Roofing Products produced revenue of £61million, down 6%.  

The Group says the removal of some 70 ‘indirect roles’ in the businesses will result in annual savings of around £3.5million.

It adds that it is confident it will be able to generate profitable long-term growth when market conditions improve, although for now it expects the macro-economic climate to remain challenging. 

28 April was World Day for Safety & Health at Work and WJ Group, which paints the lines on roads all over the country, made it its mission to make the roads safer by getting people in the construction industry to drive better.

WJ Group has just won a National Highways Industry Award for excellence in safety, learning and culture thanks to a system it has implemented in its business to try to get its drivers to drive better and be safer. It is now encouraging other companies throughout the construction industry to do the same and is offering to help them do so.

The road marking and highway safety specialist's driver behaviour scheme allowed WJ to review the performance of each of its drivers and combine it with ongoing and significant rewards to maintain standards.

WJ used its vehicle telematics system, which measures driver performance by analysing acceleration, speed, braking, driving style, fuel consumption, daily vehicle checks for compliance, and various other metrics, to develop a traffic light categorisation of its drivers: 0%–84.9% is red (underperforming), 85%–89.9% is amber (average), and 90%–100% is green (good).

Scott Logan, Transport Manager at WJ Group, says: “The key to safety is understanding the conditions your staff work in and the associated risks. At WJ, we recognised that driving is one of the primary risks not only to our own workforce but to colleagues and other road users. That’s how we identified that the most effective way we could address safety was through improving driver behaviour.”

Other changes the company has made include redesigned vehicles, extensive training, enhanced PPE, new technology and Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) accreditation.

Now WJ wants other businesses to adopt similar strategies to improve safety on the highways.

Scott adds: “To alter attitudes, there needs to be a real incentive for colleagues to fully embody the values of the business.

"For us, we award the top three and most improved drivers from each depot with monthly and yearly bonuses. Then the winners are published on our internal social media platform to maintain awareness of the scheme among everyone. This is a great way to harbour a culture of safety within our teams.

“Since introducing the scheme, we’ve seen real improvements.

"When we began, the average performance across the group was 87.58%. Our most recent scores showed it is consistently over 95% – a massive improvement. This has resulted in a 40% reduction in the number of accidents we’ve had and a 44.87% decrease in the costs associated with these accidents. Using data like this really helps to understand the success and failures when implementing new processes.

“Overall, our driver behaviour scheme has been a great success all round, not only delivering significant benefits for the business, but giving our drivers something to strive towards. We are now presenting this across the industry, allowing other organisations to replicate the success we have had and making the roads safe for all.

"We’re encouraging organisations in all industries to take a similar approach to creating a safety culture.”

To find out more about the WJ Group scheme and how it could be applied to your business, click here.

London Stone, the now nationwide hard landscaping materials supplier, has opened its seventh showroom.

The new 450m2 showroom is in Eastleigh, Hampshire, close to the M3 and just eight minutes from junction five of the M27.

The new branch boasts inspirational hard landscaping material displays, including natural stone, porcelain, clay pavers, composite decking, and pergolas and planters.

Steve Walley, London Stone's Managing Director, says: “We’re incredibly excited to open our newest showroom in Eastleigh. We’re looking forward to establishing a relationship with the local community and hope to increase footfall to the surrounding businesses.

"I'm incredibly proud of the new showroom. It’s looking fantastic and is a great setting to view our materials in situ.”

More new London Stone showrooms will be opening soon in Bristol and Altrincham, Greater Manchester, and London Stone also has three existing partner showrooms in Cheshire, Hartlepool and Kent.

London Stone also recently announced that from 2023 it has been certified as carbon neutral. Read more about that here.

Demonstrate your decarbonisation commitment with the revised PAS 2080. Download free here. 

BSI has published a new version of its PAS 2080 on managing and reducing carbon in the built environment, which enables companies to demonstrate their commitment to decarbonisation.

PAS stands for Publicly Available Specification, which means it is free, thanks to the sponsorship of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the Green Construction Board (GCB). It is also supported by the Construction Leadership Council.

The guidance document, first published in 2016, now includes case studies where the standard has been applied and provides worked examples to assist further with the application and integration of this specification.

The scope has been expanded, with a new emphasis on whole life carbon and a more focused alignment with the Government’s aim of achieving a Net Zero carbon economy by 2050.

PAS 2080:2023 specifies requirements for the management of whole-life carbon in buildings and infrastructure in the provision, operation, use and end-of-life of new projects or programmes of work, as well as the management or retrofit of existing buildings and schemes.

It helps individual companies to understand their impact on the wider network, revealing interdependencies and encouraging early collaboration. It requires the definition of roles and responsibilities and integrated decision-making and procurement processes throughout the lifecycle of a building or other works.

One benefit of reducing carbon is that it almost invariably saves money. Follow Pas 2080 and you can expect to see reductions in material, energy and labour costs during the project, as well as reductions in whole-life capital and operational costs.

The specification aims to:

• Encourage wider uptake and action on carbon management
• Demonstrate your commitment to carbon reduction
• Help give you a competitive edge when bidding for tenders
• Help construction adapt to a low carbon future
• Help users develop their expertise of carbon management
• Help users increase confidence and trust in their practice.

BSI is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with PAS 2080:2023 contributing to Goal 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure, Goal 11 on sustainable cities and communities, Goal 12 on responsible consumption and production and Goal 13 on climate action.

Covid put Stamford Stone’s plans for a new factory workshop on hold following planning approval for a 43-acre extension to Clipsham Bidwells quarry. But now those plans are moving ahead.

See Stamford Stone at:

Inflation and the cost of living crisis might still be hitting the headlines from time to time but companies cannot wait for ever to achieve their ambitions and for Stamford Stone (the name of which is now a registered trade mark) the time has come to move on.

Stamford Stone extracts Clipsham limestone from its Bidwells and Medwells quarries in Clipsham, Rutland. Achieving planning permission for mineral extraction always takes a long time and obtaining it for the 43-acre extension of Clipsham Bidwells quarry was no exception, even though much of the preliminary work had been carried out by the previous owners, Clipsham Quarry Company, before Stamford Stone bought the company, including 300-acres of land and 1,800 acres of mineral reserves, in 2018.

Planning permission was finalised and extraction started in the 43-acre extension in 2021. Although Stamford Stone Company had been able to carry on working throughout the pandemic, due to the nature of its work being mostly in the open air or isolated with machinery, Director Daniel Wilson did not think the past two years were the right time for more investment.

Now, with a bulging order book, he sees no reason for waiting any longer and plans to go ahead with building a new, 7,000m2 factory workshop at Clipsham Bidwells quarry.

In fact, he admits that “had we not been watching the news for the past six months we probably would have cracked on with it already”.

Having a factory in the quarry will mean the raw block will not have to travel 20 miles-or-so to Stamford Stone’s factory and showroom in Helpston to be processed.

That will reduce its carbon footprint, not to mention transport costs – and, when you are transporting raw block, despite much of it already being scanted in the quarries – a proportion of  what you are moving is waste. Having a factory in the quarry would mean transporting more finished product.

Planning limits how much stone can be moved out of the quarry, and although that limit is fairly high at 170,000 tonnes a year from Clipsham Bidwells quarry, it is preferable to have as much of it as possible leaving as high value finished or semi-finished product, especially as the initial yields from the newly consented area are better than expected.

At the top of the quarry is Bidwell Clipsham, with its distinctive bands. Below that are plainer beds of Lincolnshire limestone, and below that, harder Clipsham Cream, which is currently being used for an elaborate private new-build in London, although Stamford Stone has signed an NDA on that and can’t say anything about it except that it is truly impressive.

Of course, cores were taken from the new area to anticipate the yields but, as Dan says, you never know precisely what you will find until you actually open up a quarry.

Stamford Stone’s plan is to reduce the carbon footprint still further by generating renewable electricity with wind turbines and / or solar panels on about 100 acres of the 300 it bought along with the quarry. It sees another potential carbon benefit from offsetting by extending the existing 70 acres of woodland on the site. It believes it could also help other companies achieve net carbon neutrality by selling offsetting.

Dan says Bidwells quarry could be energy self-sufficient from renewables but had been equivocating about whether to connect to the national grid in order to feed into it and, if necessary, draw from it. But the connection point is not close by and he describes the cost of connection as “astronomical”.

The issue might have been settled by a company that is looking for land on which to put extensive banks of batteries to even out the peaks and troughs of sustainable electricity production. It charges the batteries during peaks and feeds the electricity into the grid during troughs.

Not only would the company pay to house its batteries on Stamford Stone’s land, it would also meet the cost of connecting to the national grid (because it does not have a business without the connection). Dan says it is something other quarry operators might like to look at and he would be happy to talk to them about it.

There is also a new management structure at Stamford Stone. Although the company had continued working during the Covid pandemic, some of the 48 people there were furloughed during the early days and Dan and his sister and fellow Director, Laura Green, got stuck in to even more of the work than usual.

Dan has said previously how beneficial that proved to be by making them aware of some of the inefficiencies of the production process and how they could be improved.

But it also made them aware that they were still running the business as if it employed the 11 people who were there when they took over the day to day running of the business eight years ago. That in itself was less than optimally efficient because they were spending too much time working in the business rather than managing its development.

Consequently, a senior management team has now been developed that sees Tom Arlow in charge of the two quarries assisted by Louisa Turner. Alan Hanrahan has joined the company to add his expertise in logistics as Operations Manager, setting budgets and controlling costs. Tony James is Production Manager at the factory in Helpston with Ricky Parkinson as Plant Maintenance Manager, keeping the company at the forefront with new plant and machinery both in the quarries and in the production facilities. Wendy Ivatt and Richard Hall head the draughting and estimating team, which is expanding due to the amount of large commercial projects the company is now involved in.

More economies might come from building a road between Bidwells and Medwells quarries. That would enable lorries from both to access the A1 without having to go through the village of Stretton, which would help to keep the neighbouring residents happy.

Even though the two quarries are close together, they have differing characteristics and the stones are sold separately and at different price points. Dan says Clipsham Medwells is the best choice for sky facing applications such as cappings.

Block from both quarries is sold to a dozen or so masonry companies and walling and flooring stone is also sold business-to-business, with most of the walling stone sold through builders merchants, especially when it goes to the Cotswolds and further north, such as Harrogate. It is generally white labelled as ‘Lincolnshire stone’ to carry the merchant’s branding.

Although there is a growing commercial imperative to be seen as environmentally friendly, it is something that Dan says he and his family have always tried to achieve.

Carbon reduction has clearly grown in significance, but biodiversity is also an issue and it is often forgotten how many quarries and former quarries are designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

At Clipsham Medwells quarry there are significant areas of calcareous grassland that are home to some of the country’s rarer fauna and flora. And there are protected Peregrine falcons nesting in rock faces.

There is no blasting in the quarries and even a factory in Medwells would be inconspicuously within the quarry with minimal noise from the machinery. In fact, Dan currently has planning applications in for off-grid eco-pods for people to escape to, away from technology and modern living, in the original ‘Big Pits Quarry’, which ceased being worked in the 1980s.

Stone from Clipsham Bidwells has taken its place alongside the stone from Clipsham Medwells, and in the product display area at Helpston even sits comfortably alongside the imported stones that Stamford Stone sells for hard landscaping, much of it these days from Morocco and Egypt. The stone is sourced from ethical quarries, says Stamford Stone. 

Much of the Clipsham masonry goes to the colleges of Cambridge and Oxford, both for conservation and new build. One of the projects currently taking 400m3 of Clipsham is the new Stephen A Schwarzman Centre for Humanities at Oxford, which resulted from a CPD presentation Stamford Stone gave to the architects at Hopkins three years ago. “We do a lot of CPD presentations,” says Dan. A team from the project, where Vetter Laing O’Rourke is the contractor, visited Clipsham Bidwells quarry to select the blocks wanted well in advance of the start of the construction work.

Other Oxford College projects, both with Szerelmey, are at Rhodes House and Corpus Christie, respectively using 40m3 and 70m3 of Clipsham limestone

Right now Stamford Stone is also gearing up for the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL in London in June (you will find the company on stand F56). “We always try to bring quite a lot of project images as well as a great range of samples from both our Clipsham quarries,” says Dan.

With talk of recession now less common than it was at the end of last year, Dan believes he is justified in feeling optimistic. “We’re geared up now for a good time ahead. With some exciting projects, plentiful supply of the finest limestone and a great team of people, we’re excited about the future.”