‘Tis the season to be jolly. But you might be wondering what there is to be jolly about.

If you won an award at the Stone Federation’s Natural Stone Awards at the beginning of December then perhaps you will still hold on to a feeling of joy about that. The recognition of excellence is always rewarding.

Or perhaps you were involved in one of the many projects recognised in the Chartered Institute of Builders’ annual Construction Management awards. Congratulations to one and all who were.

So... what can we aspire to in 2023? From what can we take sustenance to last us through January and February – those cold months; those short days?

New Year is a time to reset the clock; take-off in new a direction. Or even slow down.

A long-time associate and occasional collaborator of mine, Mark Aldridge, is retiring in December.

Mark is a fine, old-school draughtsman who has worked with many of us in the stone industry over many years.

He told me that after bobbing along from job to job since the pandemic, suddenly, when he announced his retirement, everyone needed him. Work flooded in. He turned down most of it because the decision had been made. Enjoy the retirement, Mark.

And no, I’m not intending to announce my retirement in the hope that work floods in. Although I could simply announce I had to postpone retirement because of new commitments, followed by another retirement date and so on and so forth until the lights go out or they turn off the life support.

The pension fund needs time to recover from a near death experience in September first. It has the added problem of currently growing at a rate of less than inflation. It has an uncanny similarity to my IT skills and the growth of new technology.

But assuming you’re not retiring anytime soon and have a stone business to run, here’s a few facts and tips for 2023.

Facts...

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) there are more than 340,000 construction companies in the UK, of which 336,000 employ fewer than 25 people.

Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) turn over £56.7billion, which is slightly more than a third of the total for construction. Lots of small portions of the sub-contractor’s cake to go round.

Construction is tough and supply chains can be long. Getting paid takes longer and the 1% of big companies that control two-thirds of the money in construction apply a tight contractual and ‘friendly’ hand around the money supply throat. Neither do they have any qualms about tightening their grip when they need too.

The majority of companies in the stone industry are SMEs. Learning to build a business beyond a SME is a skill on its own and not many of us possess it. Smaller companies often revolve around one passionate, hard-working individual.

Tips...

If you’re one of those individuals it might be worth ‘sticking to your knitting’ – in other words, stay true to the skill that drove you to set up in the first place and get some help with stuff like growing the business, selling, marketing and whatever. You can’t do everything.

But where can you get that help?

Many local authorities have business hubs dedicated to supporting SMEs. They support and nurture local enterprise with grants, reduced rates and targeted support. The government claims to cover 100% of the UK with its new Growth Hubs initiative.

Build your network. Get involved in your trade association. Stone Federation, Tiling Association, Chartered Institute of Builders, Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Royal Institute of British Architects... they all hold events on a variety of topics with non-members welcome. Widen your contacts and use the resources available to network, learn more, meet customers. Find support for insurance, contract disputes, learning and development – all available from member organisations. Find out what’s available for free, such as from Future Learn, part of the Open University. It offers free business courses online that you can complete to your own timescale. There are 47 business strategy courses alone. See www.futurelearn.com.

Develop relationships. Talk to your supply chain. Visit them. Talk to your customers. Visit them, too. Keep dialogue channels open. It’s not a race to the lowest price. Add value instead – knowledge, service, reliability, dealing with problems efficiently. It’s easier to buy from those you know and trust.

Get involved. Visit exhibitions. The Natural Stone Show takes place in London in June. There’s also London Build and UK Construction Week. You might have your own favourites.

And there is now a particular emphasis on diversity, mental health and sustainability. And rightly so. Focusing on these three elements alone will strengthen your workforce and connect your business, ultimately moving it forward.

So yes, there are reasons to be jolly this festive season and to take some of that cheer into the new year.

Best wishes for 2023.

In one of the Priestman Associates delivery modules we develop the question of whether or not businesses, with their leadership and workforce, have got WoTT it takes not just to survive but to thrive?

In summary, the WoTT acronym groups the following key assets of skills development:

• Workplace Skills
• Technical Skills
• Transferable Skills

All these personal assets add to the sum of the value we offer in our work environment and our work relationships. 

Workplace skills are all about the skills we need in our organisation. They include the way we interact between management, operatives, and client representatives. It can be about grasping the bigger picture of the large and (sometimes more important) small interactions between the processes and people around us.

Omit this asset on appraisals and lament at leisure. An operative with high workplace skills might well be the hidden facilitator who gets stuff done. Sometimes known as soft skills, it can hit hard if they are absent from your project.

Technical skills tend to be most easily recognised as important. These are what are often called the hard skills – an operative’s ability to fulfil the method statement. This is what a contractor gets paid for: fixers who can fix stone; cleaners who can clean stone; restorers who can repair it... For supervisors and managers, it includes an ability to prepare for the project, programme it, monitor it, report, inform, advise, gain agreement... basically manage.

Transferable skills relate to how well competency on one job transfers to another. Sometimes an employer switches off at this point. But I’d encourage them not to because 1) this is not simply about someone you have invested in leaving and going elsewhere, and 2) you also recruit employees who have learnt skills elsewhere.

Transferable skills might include aspects such as how much exposure a supervisor has had to liaising with conservation officers or user groups. Or how much skill a manager has displayed in handling difficult customer relationships.

It might be that a workplace skill also becomes a transferable skill when a project moves from one contractor to another and some labour moves over to the new contractor. Or a case of you moving operatives around your various projects based on an appraisal of the experience they have gained and the expertise they have built up.

Interestingly, the word ‘appraisal’ derives from an original meaning of ‘setting a value’, or, in other words, putting a price on something.

Perhaps this is a good point to consider our value and to make sure we have got WoTT it takes. We should make sure our value system for conducting appraisals acknowledges not only technical know how but also workplace and transferable skills.

WHAT SAP

I am delighted to say Priestman Associates is the winner of the tender to deliver the popular CITB Specialist Applied-Skills Programmes (SAPs) in Stone Fixing and Façade Preservation at level 2, and Heritage Stonemasonry at level 3.

The SAPs programmes reduce time away from site, allow those on them to benefit from mentoring, and offer assessment for an NVQ. For CITB-registered firms the programme works out fee neutral.

As you read this, Priestman Associates is about to launch its next cohort of SAPs, so if you’d like to get in on the act please get in touch with me using the contact details below the picture above.

EXPIRING CSCS CARDS

If your CSCS card is expiring and cannot be renewed (perhaps because the route to CSCS cards is now through qualifications only [NVQs] and yours was obtained under ‘grandfather rights‘ industry accreditation, which is no longer an acceptable route), or you want to up-grade to skilled operative, advance crafts, supervisor or manager, the OSAT (on-site assessment) route is likely to be of interest to you. If you need help in this regard, please do give me a shout.

 

Dekton’s latest collection of SilverKoast surfaces is said to have been inspired by California’s coastline along the Pacific Ocean.

SilverKoast comes in two designs, with the look of Carrara and Ivory White marbles, and in velvet and polished finishes.

There is Malibu and Salina in a polished finish and Laguna and Marina in a velvet finish.

Cosentino, which makes Dekton, says carbon neutrality has been achieved for the entire life cycle of Dekton with a bit of help from offsetting. It covers Scopes 1, 2 & 3, from the extraction of the raw material and the calculation of the direct and indirect emissions from its production cycle, and those derived from its use to the end of the product’s life.

Dekton can be used both for outdoor and indoor applications, including floors, wall and furniture cladding, kitchen and bathroom worktops, shower trays and washbasins. It is manufactured in large-format slabs (up to 3200mm x 1440mm) in five different thicknesses (4mm, 8mm, 12mm, 20mm and 30mm).

www.cosentino.com/dekton

www.cosentino.com/en-gb

For those of us who still like to have a calendar on the wall giving us a new photograph to look at each month as we keep track of the days, a couple you might like to consider come from the Building Conservation Directory and the Dry Stone Walling Association.

The Building Conservation Directory is celebrating its 30th year this year and the calendar is helping to remind those involved in the heritage sector to get their entries in for the special 30th edition of the Directory. Each month comes with a photograph of a beast, many of them carved or sculpted, although some (like the one on the cover) are stained glass. It kicks off in January with a picture of the sanctuary knocker at Durham Cathedral, which is actually a copy of the original knocker.

The Dry Stone Walling Association's calendar has examples of modern and historical walling, starting with a photograph from Chris Bolshaw of a shelter wall for sheep at a farm in Lancashire, complete with sheep in a snowy landscape.

It is not too late to get them for your office for the New Year. They each cost £8. The Dry Stone Walling calendar is available from the Association's online shop (click here to visit the shop) and the Conservation Directory calendar is available from Cathedral Communications. Contact them on Tel: 01747 871717 or email [email protected] 

David Coster, Director of Advanced Stone & Masonry Supplies, which sells Stain Proof and Tenax products, talks to Salvatore Caruso, MD of new company Stone Automation, formed to sell Italian company Donatoni Macchine saws (and other machines and tools) in the UK and Ireland.

David Coster: Tell us about setting up Stone Automation.

Salv Caruso: My history is a fabricator and that’s something still very close to my heart with my company Classico Marble. I started to work with Stone Italiana about 28 years ago, so when they were looking for a partner in the UK, naturally we started to supply Stone Italiana quartz to the trade as well as natural stone.

We then started to sell Wodium tooling from Belgium. When I first saw their tooling on videos I thought the videos had been speeded up. But about nine years ago I decided to try them and they have changed our production completely. Some materials we were able to cut four times faster than we had been cutting them before.

They then said they were looking for someone to sell the tools in the UK and asked us if we could do it. I said I sort of could, but that there were other companies that were established tool sellers in the UK. They said they were not looking just for someone to sell the tools, but someone who could hold customers’ hands a bit to show them how the tools can be used to solve their problems and give customers that bit of support. So we agreed to do that and that business has evolved.

Then, earlier this year, we started to have some conversations with Donatoni. Again, I use Donatoni machines in my business – I have four Jets and I have had a wonderful experience with them – so I thought, yes; sure; I like the machines. So I formed the new company, Stone Automation, to supply these products to other fabricators. The other product we sell is Slabsmith. Again, it has helped my business.

They’re all products I know and that have helped me in my business, so now I’m going to help other people’s businesses with these products – as long as I think they are right for those businesses.

David: You work in various materials, but from a personal and business perspective, which do you prefer?

Salv: Funny enough, I had to make some choices last year when we moved home. I went with a ceramic floor, because I think ceramic is fantastic, although personally I think it’s best used when only the surface is exposed. I went for Stone Italiana around the kitchen – I have a coffee machine that sits on it and I never have any worries about it staining or marking. I know it’s going to look the same 30 years down the line. And for the island I wanted something nobody else has, so I went for Wakanda quartzite from Brazil. It is striking with the vein running down the leg. It’s kind of cool because I know no-one else in the world has got that same piece of stone.

Dave: I think that’s where the industry sits. If you need a one-off piece you still can’t beat natural stone, but then there’s the practicality of quartz and the durability of ceramics.

On to the next question: you’re selling machines and tools, do you think the workpieces still need to be hand finished?

Salv: My background, before I joined my Dad’s business in 2002, was in automation consultancy for a German company, so I’m a massive believer in automation. I believe machinery should do everything it can do. There’s no point taking a piece of stone off a machine if that machine hasn’t been fully utilised.

However, we do put everything through a final check by hand and I can’t see that changing in the near future for us.

Dave: You have obviously expanded with your new company, but do you have any more investments planned?

Salv: In the UK we want to change things a little bit because I don’t think companies have been getting exceptional service on machinery. In my experience, if you want to contact someone about your machines you have to wait until nine-o-clock. You call. Someone calls you back. They take some details. Then an engineer talks to you. Before you know it you have lost four hours’ production. Only a fabricator can understand how painful that is. That’s why we put two people on the Stone Automation help desk straight away. You can phone them between 7.30am and 4pm. It doesn’t mean we can solve every problem but a lot of problems are quite small and can be solved quickly.

We believe service is the biggest investment we should be making and we have made that investment. When spares are needed, we have a small margin on parts. We are not taking advantage of people when they need spare parts.

Dave: Some people might think there’s a conflict of interest in you being a fabricator yourself?

Salv: I’m really open with everyone. The first thing I tell them is that I can understand their needs, their requirements, and their pressures because I’m a fabricator too and we’re all facing the same challenges.

We want reliable machinery that it’s easy to train people to use, because in this industry there’s a relatively high turnover of staff. We want machinery that’s going to be well supported when there’s an issue and we don’t want to pay through the nose for spare parts.

There could be a conflict in some people’s eyes, but usually people who are straight forward understand I’m a straightforward guy myself. Sometimes people think the worst of people because that’s how they behave.

Dave: With your different businesses you see the industry from various perspectives. What do you think will be the trends to look out for 2023?

Salv: I think the Italian market has been more accepting of sintered materials than the UK, so that might increase in the UK where we are still seeing a large percentage of quartz used. We are definitely seeing natural stone coming back quite strongly, especially at the luxury end of the market. I think that’s going to continue.

Dave: What are the main challenges you are facing now?

Salv: The biggest challenge for fabricators is increasing costs. People’s personal lives are taking a hammering so there’s pressure on employers to increase salaries. There’s a lot of fabricators who complain about not having enough people and a skilled workforce, but some of them only have themselves to blame because instead of bringing people into the trade and training them up, like we all have to do, they simply took people from other companies.

I think we all have to take responsibility for training a certain number of people and bringing them into the industry.

We just have to face increasing costs and pass them on to the customer up the line if we can. But we have got to be as efficient on our production as possible.

Dave: Have you employed more people?

Salv: Yes. But you need to have a bit of luck finding the right people.

Like a lot of the properties English Heritage is responsible for, the Medieval Bishops’ Palace in Lincoln is a ruin. Yet these ruins of what was once one of the most important buildings in the country are an invaluable record of a time when Lincoln was the administrative centre of the largest diocese in England, stretching from the Humber to the Thames. To preserve that significance, £2.5million is now being spent on conserving the ancient stonework.

Some of the last blocks of Lincoln limestone from the quarry operated by the city’s cathedral are being used to save the ruins of the Medieval Bishops’ Palace adjacent to Lincoln Cathedral. With reserves exhausted, the quarry closed in 2021.

Before it closed the decision had been made to spend £2.5million preserving the ruins of the palace once occupied by the Bishops of Lincoln, and 50m3 of free issue Lincoln Limestone Silver and Red bed blocks were pre-ordered for the specialist conservation contractor, Messenger, for the project.

However, yield from the stone turned out to be less than the 50% anticipated and it was used up in the first phase of the work. Another 20m3 were purchased.

Neither could the stone satisfy all the bed heights required and an alternative stone was approved. It is Lavoux limestone, which is also used at Lincoln Cathedral. It is a French limestone considered a good geological match to the Lincoln stone. It is supplied in the UK by Pierre Heritage.

Fred Markland, Messenger’s Heritage & Conservation Senior Building Surveyor, told NSS: “Due to the various stone sizes needed on-site, it was more efficient to order the stone in slab form and then to cut the exact stone size required on-site using a site saw. This assisted with the constantly changing, unforeseen stone requirements by having stock readily available and meant we could find a use for much of the ‘waste’ removed from what we had sawn.”

The Messenger BCR Group is based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, where the famous Collyweston roofing slate comes from (and Messenger is actively preserving and sharing the legacy of that stone at its Heritage Centre). Messenger is working closely with English Heritage, Historic England and Buttress Architects, who are also the architects for Lincoln Cathedral.

It was one of the bishops, Bishop Remigius, who instigated the construction of the cathedral in the 11th century (it was partially destroyed in the 12th century by a fire and then, later, by an earthquake). The first reference to a ‘Bishop’s House’ was in the early 12th century. It is not necessarily the current Medieval Bishops’ Palace, but could be, says Kate North of English Heritage.

“The first phase we know much about as the Bishops’ Palace (as it is today) was with Bishop Robert de Chesney in the mid-12th century," says Kate, "although there’s not a huge amount of that surviving and the rest is a mixture of 13th, 14th and 15th century – with a lot of the surviving fabric dating from the 13th century.” There are also Victorian interventions.

The Medieval Bishops’ Palace was one of the 400-or-so sites English Heritage became responsible for looking after when it parted from what then became Historic England in 2015. English Heritage became a charitable trust, its sites including many internationally important heritage sites, including Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall.

As a parting gift on its way to independence English Heritage was given £80million by the government to ensure its sites were up to standard, and the consolidation of the ruins of the Medieval Bishops Palace in Lincoln is one of the projects that money is paying for.

The Bishops’ Palace certainly needed some attention, as the netting on the walls to catch falling masonry testified. The risk of falling masonry had, in fact, necessitated closing parts of the site to visitors.

The government funding comes to an end at the end of this financial year (the end of March 2023) and the Medieval Bishops Palace project with it, as it was always scheduled to, even though the start date was delayed slightly by Covid, with Messenger not moving on to the site until March 2021. To keep it on schedule, Messenger had up to 12 masons working 11-hour days on the project in 2022.

It was not an easy site to access because the only entrance is through a stone arch, which restricts the size of delivery vehicles that can be used. Messenger’s operatives received specific banksman training for the project to get vehicles through the arch and products on to the site.

Fred Markland praises the scaffolders from Crown Scaffolding in Derbyshire for their work because of the difficulty of getting the scaffolding on to site. A limited amount has been used and it has been moved around as necessary.

Due to the geology of the site a continuous linked scaffolding with limited steps assists with logistics. Manual handling from one end to the other involves material hoists, buckets, a power barrow, trolleys, a forklift truck and loading bays to limit manual handling.

And because of the difficulty of getting the scaffolding on to site, work at a higher level has been more extensive than originally envisaged so it does not need revisiting any time soon.

Before any physical work started, surveys were carried out on the species living at the site, notably bats, which openings in the repairs allow to continue to have access to their roosts. There was ongoing ecological monitoring throughout the project.

Trials of materials and methods to be used were also carried out prior to the main conservation work commencing, including samples of stone repair techniques with different tooling finishes for stone replacement, including axe tooling, and appropriate mortar mixes for different locations around the site.

English Heritage worked with the University of Lincoln on some nanolime trials during the project. Nanolime is calcium hydroxide dispersed in a solvent and used as a consolident for limestone. It was used at various locations and will be the subject of a paper produced jointly by the University and Historic England in due course.

By the time the project is completed next year, the site will once again be safe for the public to visit, although a visitor centre through which the public accessed the site previously was leased from the diocese and is now considered too expensive. Currently it is anticipated that visits will be restricted to arranged events for organised parties.

As the work has progressed there have been a number of hard-hat tours for interested groups and educational purposes. The numbers that can be accommodated have necessarily been limited, but there have always been more people wanting to see the project than have been able to join the tours.

The legacy of the project at the Medieval Bishops’ Palace will not only be ruins that are safe to visit, but also a highly accurate and detailed record of the site thanks to point cloud laser scanning and photogrammetry that combine to create a precise 3D digital record in sufficient detail to be able to see individual stones. It was one of the first English Heritage projects to be catalogued in this way, with English Heritage calling on its partners at Historic England to lend their expertise to carry out the scanning.

The data were then passed to the architects to mark out the stonework that needed attention. However, the scans were completed before Covid and after two fairly severe winters the walls were re-surveyed once the scaffolding had been erected.

In a collaborative approach between Paddy Lilley, leading the Messenger site team, Contracts Manager Martin Nee, QS Lewis Pickering, Adam Lewis (the Project Architect from Buttress) and Edward Kepczyk (the Lead Architect from Buttress), with curatorial support from Kate North of English Heritage, the additional works were identified as being necessary.

The fact that the Medieval Bishops’ Palace is a ruin owes a lot to the civil wars of the 17th century. And while most of the fabric that remains dates back to the 13th century, a wall on the perimeter of the site separating it from neighbouring property is Roman, with a medieval parapet constructed on top of it. For structural integrity it was found to require a substantial degree of demolition and rebuilding, which had not been included in the original programme. “That was £100,000-worth of work that wasn’t envisaged,” says Fred Markland.

There is a tower, Alwick Tower, and a Chapel, St Hughes, which were rebuilt by the Victorians, although they still contain medieval stonework, more of which has been discovered during the current project.

In the west porch, some of the medieval stonework uncovered had red paint on it, which is now being analysed to see if it is also medieval and to add to the records. As Ronald Blakeley, the National Projects Manager of English Heritage, told NSS: “It’s a site that keeps on giving.”

Major consolidation work was carried out in the 1950s and ’60s, although, almost inevitably with work from that period, it involved hard cements and concrete, before the deterioration-accelerating effects of the use of hard cements with stone were widely understood.

Some of the cementitious consolidation from the mid-20th century is so extensive that it has not been removed as part of the current project. To do so would have been a major undertaking and it was felt it was also likely to lead to the loss of more of the original fabric of the walls, with some of the medieval masonry having even more extensive cracking than had been expected.

It was not only hard cement that was playing its part in the deterioration of the walls. Valerian and ivy were also contributing, their thickening roots forcing the stones apart. Valerian is a particular problem because it is a popular garden plant and there is a lot of it in the precinct gardens of the cathedral. It self-seeds on the exposed stone walls and more than 1,000 plants had to be removed by Messenger. Keeping it off the walls will require on-going attention.

One reason for the deterioration seen in the walls is that the stone used for interior walls was not the best, as it was not intended to be exposed to the weather. A roof would have provided protection and part of the current work has been to replace that kind of protection by capping the walls. Various methods have been used. At higher levels there is hard capping, some using Ancaster limestone. There is lead protecting the kitchen high level. Lower down, there is soft capping, where the walls are topped with turf.

Soft cappings were developed as what is known as ‘sustainable conservation’ to protect stone ruins in a self-sustaining way. Soft cappings are permeable, but so are stone walls with lime mortars. Soft cappings shed water and can help prevent algal growth and streaking on the faces of walls as well as providing insulation to avoid freezing, which can be a cause of stone cracking and delaminating.

The 2022 summer was particularly dry and it did look for a while as if the grass had died, although it was showing signs of recovery when it started to rain in the autumn.

Ed Kepczyk says the team was fortunate to have the input of Alan Catherside, of the Gardens & Landscape team at English Heritage, on the soft cappings before his retirement. The architect says it was interesting to observe the difference between the Messenger soft cappings used on the project and trials beforehand, which quickly died. Ed Kepczyk says: “The reflection so far is that proper installation and tending is key.”

See the Bishops’ Palace entry on the English Heritage website here and you can download a Lincolnshire Museums Information Sheet on it from tinyurl/bisopspalace.

Nearly 40,000 construction companies have defaulted on repaying their Covid-19 bounce back loans of up to £50,000 each.

That’s 15% of the 260,912 government-guaranteed loans issued to construction companies.

In total, the bounce back loans given to construction companies amounted to £7.68billion.

The figures come from data obtained under a Freedom of Information enquiry by Construction News.

Another 679 building companies have defaulted on the higher-value (up to £5million a time) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILs) – that’s 4% of all such loans to construction companies. And construction received 17% of all CBILs.

Construction News reports DRS Bond Management director Chris Davies as saying: “Banks were notoriously negative toward construction companies before the Covid-loan schemes and the only reason they were lent to during the Covid-loan period was the government guarantees.”

I have been writing about the ceramic tile sector for more than 40 years now and I can say with some certainty that 2022 was a year unlike any other.

In common with other mature industrial sectors, the past four decades have seen the global ceramic tile sector impacted by geopolitical forces and traumatic world events, such as the 2008 global financial crisis; 9-11; and the Gulf War. But this year several powerful negative forces have been at play simultaneously – and they have impacted on everyone in the global ceramic tile community.

As well as the Coronavirus pandemic, the UK has been additionally challenged by Brexit and the soaring energy prices resulting from the war in Ukraine.

These three challenges have had a particularly acute impact on the ceramic tile market. Take Brexit, for instance. The UK only has one remaining volume tile manufacturer, Johnson Tiles, so the vast bulk of this £950million+ market relies on imported tiles. Spain and Italy have been traditionally two of the major supplier nations and they now face expensive delays and painful paperwork to keep contracts supplied and warehouses stocked.

Looking forward, emerging producer nations, such as Brazil, China and India could offer alternative sources, but only when the UK signs a raft of yet-to-emerge international trade deals. And importing tiles from far away has many downsides, particularly given the escalating cost of marine fuel. With a container ship consuming 60,000+ gallons of marine fuel per day, this is no small consideration, and has led to a huge rise in freight transport costs.

In July 2020 the average price of shipping a 40ft container from China to the UK was around £1,500.  Today that figure is nearer £11,000, a staggering 630% increase. And the problem does not end there, because higher diesel prices mean the cost of getting tiles from port to warehouse to customer have all risen significantly.

The war in Ukraine had a particular impact on the tile sector. Just as bakers suddenly woke up to the fact that Ukraine was a major source of wheat, the tile industry discovered that Ukraine was a key exporter of clay, which is the core ingredient of any tile.

The development of porcelain tiles means that the clay extracted near the main European ceramic hubs – Castellon in Spain and Sassuolo in Italy – is no longer fit for purpose. Prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Ukrainian clays accounted for 25% of all the raw materials used by the Italian ceramic industry. While alternative supplies are available – from the UK, Turkey, and across Eastern Europe – it is not easy to suddenly source and ship thousands of tons of clay to your factory.

And when these alternative sources of clay did arrive, manufacturers found that subtle differences in chemical composition meant tiles made from them displayed subtle colour differences when fired. To maintain design consistency, manufacturers had to reformulate thousands of products, with particular emphasis on new engobe compositions to decorate and texture the tiles.

After these technical difficulties were overcome, the spiralling gas prices – still the primary fuel in tile production – and other inflationary pressures compounded the need for price hikes.

At the start of the year the situation was so acute that Confindustria Ceramica, the Italian tile manufacturers’ association, took the unprecedented step of sending out press bulletins to explain the situation in the hope of calming the market’s fears.

In mid-March, when gas prices reached a record level of €3.50 per cubic metre, 30 factories in Italy  (out of around 220) stopped production and furlough agreements were put in place for 4,000 workers. There were also significant shut downs in Spain. And the decision to shut down is never taken lightly because of the potential damage caused to kilns when they cool down.

Looking forward, Spanish and Italian companies are seeking to diversify their gas and material supply chains, both by extending the number of European suppliers they buy from and by seeking new sources from outside Europe.

There are hopes that hydrogen-fuelled kilns will offer a more sustainable manufacturing path eventually, although that will only become viable when the price of hydrogen falls, as it inevitably will with economies of scale and innovations as production increases.

You might think these pressures on the market would have caused a slow down in mergers, acquisitions, and capital investment, but all three have continued apace. And there is no doubt that we will see more companies pursuing a policy of growth through acquisition.

The largest player in the world ceramic tile market is the US-based Mohawk Group. It has built a powerful portfolio of tile brands over the past decade, including American Olean, Daltile, Decortiles, Eliane, Kerama, Marazzi, Emilceramica, and Ragno. In June 2022 it significantly expanded its tile presence with the acquisition of Vitromex, the leading tile manufacturer in Mexico. Next in line looks like being Elizabeth, one of the largest tile manufacturers in Brazil. The purchase is expected to be completed in 2023.

In the UK, Victoria PLC has been steadily amassing a powerful portfolio of tile brands, with Ascot, Casabella Ceramiche, Casainfinita, Ceramiche Capri, Ceramica Colli de Sassuolo, Dom Ceramiche, Keradom, and Vallelunga & Co in Italy, and Ibero Porcelanico, Keraben, Metropol, and Saloni in Spain. In 2022, Victoria made a significant move into the North American market with the acquisition of Cali, the San Diego-based flooring distributor with various B2C and B2B platforms.

In Italy, Graziano Verdi continues to drive the growth of the Italcer Group. Its high-end tile brands include La Fabbrica Ceramiche, Elios Ceramica, Ceramica Rondine, Cedir, and Equipe Cerámicas. The latest brand to be added to the portfolio is Ceramica Fondovalle, a €50million Sassuolo-based manufacturer with particular expertise in large slabs. With this acquisition, Italcer is anticipated to reach a consolidated turnover of €370million in 2022, with an EBITA of €80million.

Consolidation has also been taking place among distributors. In the UK, Topps Tiles has acquired 60% of the issued share capital of Pro Tiler Ltd, an online supplier of tiling products to the trade. Topps has an option to purchase the remaining 40% that is exercisable from March 2024.

The commercial arm of Topps Tiles – Parkside and Strata Tiles – aligned to become sister brands. These two tile specification companies are looking to become market leaders in the UK’s commercial tile market by 2025.

In tools, Husqvarna Group's Construction Division, a world leader in diamond tools for the stone industry, has acquired Heger, another specialist in professional diamond tools.

The attractiveness of the tile sector was underlined when CTD Tiles, the UK’s largest tile distributor, announced its acquisition by private equity group Aurelius Investments. Previously under the ownership of Saint-Gobain, the sale comes at a time of growth for the company and included all brands in The CTD Group.

Aurelius will work with CTD’s experienced management team to leverage its leading B2B market position by expanding its e-commerce offering and to continue the company’s operational development. Aurelius also sees opportunities for opening new trade counters and additional branches in key locations across the UK.

2022 also saw the launch of a new brand in the UK tile sector: the Gölz group, based in Germany. With 75 years’ experience in high quality machinery and diamond accessories, Gölz has had a presence in the UK since 1987, providing expert technical and sales support for a range of professional machinery and diamond tools for the construction industry. Now, with the addition of the new 110V table saws, Gölz can also supply tile and stone customers with saws that can be used onsite as well as in the factory.

There were two significant accolades for the UK’s ceramic tile sector during the year. In January, Brian Newell, Chair and Founder of the TTA Technical Committee, was made an MBE in the New Year’s Honours. Brian, the CEO and Founder of Shackerley Holdings, was a founding member of The Tile Association and in his long career has helped to deliver the TTA’s key aspirations of improving standards and driving quality through the UK tiling sector.

He joined the BSI Committee B539 in the 1980s and went on to develop and draft the first British Wall & Floor Tile Installation Standards (BS 5385 Parts 1-5) and the first tiling Workmanship on Site Standards (BS 8000).

In another impressive accolade, Instarmac Group received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade 2022.   

Environmental enthusiasm

2022 will also hopefully be remembered as the year when the ceramic tile sector really put its green foot forward. For some time now companies like Kerakoll have driven the environmental agenda, while others seemed happy to talk the talk, but not walk the walk. This year, particularly at Cersaie, a major European tile exhibition, it felt as though green wash had been replaced by clear sustainability initiatives backed up by research and investment. Giovanni Savorani, Chairman of Confindustria Ceramica, stated: “The Italian ceramic industry’s commitment to sustainability was the common thread running through the entire show.”

Green initiatives seen across the ceramic sector included Grespania installing photovoltaic panels on the roof of its plant in Moncófar, Castellón. This 907kWp array is capable of generating 1.3GWh of clean energy a year – or 30% of the total energy requirement for its factory.

Instarmac Group has invested more than £400,000 on state-of-the-art solar panels at its factory in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Perfect Sense Energy installed 1,656 solar panels across a 3,771m2. The 768kW solar panels will generate 680,000kW of clean green energy for Instarmac.

Mosa has achieved Cradle to Cradle Certified Gold for its ceramic floor and wall tiles. With 99% of its products already certified at the Silver level, it wanted to go all the way by moving up to Gold according to version 3.1 of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard.

Taking another slant on sustainability, on the natural stone side of the industry Stone Federation announced its Responsible Sourcing Pledge. This is an opportunity for Stone Federation members, architects, designers, engineers, and major contractors to demonstrate commitment to the sustainable sourcing of natural stone. It follows the 2012 publication of the Stone Federation Sustainability Statement and, four years later, The Ethical Stone Register. More than 20 of the UK stone industry’s leading names immediately signed the Responsible Sourcing Pledge.

On a smaller scale, Parkside and Strata’s Clerkenwell Sustainability & Design Studio was home to a programme of activities during Clerkenwell Design Week, including The Next Generation, showcasing student sustainability concepts. Parkside’s James Journet observed: “Clerkenwell Design Week is a great chance to really get stuck into conversations and explore how we can collaborate as an industry to become more sustainable in our actions.”

Exhibition upheaval

There was no Cevisama this year. Spain’s international ceramics and bathroom equipment trade fair in Valencia was initially moved from February to June, due to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. As the crisis rolled on, and faced with growing manufacturer scepticism, the organisers had little chance but to pull the plug. The show is scheduled to be back in its usual February slot in 2023, but with exhibitor numbers still below the event’s peak, many in the industry are expressing doubts about its long term future.

Cersaie in Italy, meanwhile, marked a welcome return to something like business as usual, as more than 90,000 visitors flocked to Bologna in September, roughly twice the number that braved last year’s Covid-constrained event.

It was great to see visitors from Australia and New Zealand back assessing trends and making deals, alongside good numbers from the USA, Canada, and Europe. Unsurprisingly, there were few Chinese visitors among the 44,215 international attendees, but that was only to be expected given the pandemic restrictions that were still in place there.

Revestir, Latin America’s foremost surfaces show, celebrated it’s 20th anniversary in March, covering all seven pavilions of the Transamerica Expo Center in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was the last time the event will be held at this venue, as it moves to São Paulo Expo at Rodovia dos Imigrantes in 2023.

The 2022 event was unique because, in response to the global Coronavirus pandemic, it had a hybrid format, part digital and part face-to-face. The digital version allowed visitors to save admired products and brands and check out launches from the in-person event. The platform also hosted FIAC (International Forum of Architecture, Design & Construction), with presentations from the likes of Dutch designer Maarten Baas and American architect Charles Renfro.

Coverings, the US-based exhibition, goes from strength to strength. In 2021 it was held in Las Vegas, but returns to its spiritual home, Orlando, in 2023.

As the American market has grown, and Kentucky expands as a tile manufacturing hub, this show looks set to join Cersaie as a key date in the tile calendar. The April date is ideally spaced five months from the Bologna showcase, allowing the Spring and Autumn collection concept to return. Orlando is blessed with a plentiful supply of hotels, but the strong Dollar and the rising cost of air fares may yet deter a greater number of overseas visitors from attending the next event.

It is not my intention to discuss tile design trends here, but it is worth mentioning three sub-sectors of the market that all moved ahead in 2022: façades; worktops; exterior paving.

The first two sectors exploit porcelain’s technical qualities, as well as its aesthetic properties. Sales of mechanically-fixed ventilated façades have been growing in the UK for many years now, driven by pioneers like Shackerley Holdings and Domus Façades. Now, with big brands like Apavisa, Marazzi, Caesar, Porcelanosa, and Grespania banging the drum, it is surely time for tiled façades to take off. In the wake of Grenfell, fire-safe cladding solutions are at an all-time premium, and porcelain has a strong specification story to tell.

The rise of porcelain worktops has been driven by the widespread adoption of continuous pressing technology and digital decoration. These make it possible to create incredibly detailed 1800mm by 3600mm porcelain panels or varying thickness. With the beginning of through-body decoration and elegant book-matched designs, the market has exploded. But while there are now many factories in Italy, Spain, and beyond capable of producing these slabs, the market is being held back by a lack of trained and skilled fabricators and installers.

To achieve the best results requires significant investment in people, equipment, substrates, and construction chemicals. It also relies on specialist distribution and advanced material handling. Little wonder then that both porcelain façades and worktops will be key areas of interest at Hard Surfaces in June next year when it returns to ExCeL in London to co-locate with the Natural Stone Show.

Both façades and worktops can greatly benefit from enhanced communication and technical training, and this will be clearly demonstrated both on the exhibition floor and in the seminar programme at this important ExCel-based event.

The stand-out tile sector in 2022, however, was 20mm thick external porcelain.

It took some time for manufacturers and distributors to wake up to the full potential of the external tile market in the UK but now they have it is developing fast.

As well as the traditional manufacturer-to-distributor-to-retailer route to market, 20mm outdoor pavers can now be found via online specialists and in garden centres, builders merchants, and many other retail locations. They are being installed by landscape contractors, local authorities, and property maintenance companies as well as by traditional tilers and competent DIYers.

The ability to dry lay, adhesive fix, or pedestal mount these 20mm tiles makes them unusually versatile.  They are particularly popular with in the hospitality sector because of the vogue for al fresco dining and drinking, but they are equally suitable for use outside commercial or retail premises, on patios and balconies, for footpaths and driveways, or creating seamless inside-out architecture almost anywhere.

Outdoor paving options cover everything from small format bricks and mix and match sandstone paving through to large format slabs and porcelain tiles are a good solution for larger spaces, with sizes varying from supersized 1000mm by 1000mm modules, through XXL 600mm by 1200mm rectangles, to 200mm by 1200mm and 300mm by 1200mm planks. Uniform in thickness, they can be combined to create a personalised look or used to visually separate different outdoor zones.

Most stockists include a range of muted tones such as beige, light grey and charcoal, alongside bolder options such as light woodgrains and encaustic-inspired cement patterns. But the market in 2022 has also seen Victorian-inspired patterns with strong repeating lines and fleur-de-lys motifs and geometric designs with symmetrical, abstract patterns. There is a wide choice of natural effects available including stone-, marble-, concrete-, wood- and slate-effects.

And the commercial benefits are significant. One long-established tile distributor told me that 2022 was the year when sales of 20mm exterior tiles overtook traditional wall and floor tiles in both volume and value. And one of the leading tile agents confirmed that exterior grade tiles now account for more than half of his sales.

The UK tile market is in surprisingly rude health as we head for 2023. Apart from the three sectors outlined above, we have the potential of 3mm mesh-backed sheets, such as Laminam, to factor in.  These can be used for everything from civil engineering applications (such as tunnel lining) to furniture facings or bespoke murals.

And we should be aware of a significant trend at Cersaie – application diversity. This is less about product design than marketing direction, with tiles are being promoted for bedrooms, not only walls and floors but also bedheads and even ceramic bed frames, tiled hallways and corridors, fireplaces, and outdoor kitchens. External tiling had also moved from 2D to 3D forms – planters, water features, and raised seating.

These new application areas should inspire tile retailers and distributors and the architect and design community.

Despite the challenging global backdrop, 2023 holds real promise for the UK’s tiling sector.