David Coster, Director of Advanced Stone & Masonry Supplies, which sells Stain Proof and Tenax products, talks to Robert Jay, who has set himself up as R J Stone Consultancy, having previously been a Director of Prima Marble & Granite in north London.

David Coster: Quartz, sintered/porcelain or natural stone?

Robert Jay: Categorically, being brought up in the industry in the ’80s, natural materials for myself. We had materials like Kinawa Rose back in the ’80s for kitchen worktops and flooring. But from a business point of view and knowing what the material size and cost will be before you start a job, you can’t beat man-made materials. For volume production it’s going to be man-made. My preference is for something more bespoke, but the expectations of clients are too great for natural materials. If those expectations can be managed and are more realistic, I think there’s a market to be had there.

David Coster: Straight off the CNC or hand finished?

Robert Jay: Off the CNC. After being brought up in a factory where we had 25 blokes on benches with angle grinders and seeing all the machines available today there’s no need to try to finish by hand. The technological advancements over the past 20 years… you can’t beat it.

Physical templating or digital?

The majority of templating now is digital, although a couple of guys are still more comfortable with Correx.

In the residential, end user market, Correx makes sense because Mrs Smith wanting a set of worktops including a breakfast bar with an overhang can see a piece of Correx and agree on the size of the overhang, radius ends. It means something. Doing it digitally you can’t get that across to an end user. Signing off something that says a radius size on it, people don’t get it.

But the moment you have any sort of volume and speed is required, you can’t beat digital templating. It’s fairly new for me to say that. Once I would have always been a Correx man. But with Correx you have the issue of physically getting the Correx templates to a factory. If you have a guy who’s onsite at 8-o-clock in the morning and he’s templating until the end of his working day at 4-o-clock, he can do that every day with digital templates, but with Correx he has to pick it up in the morning and take the templates back before the factory can start making something. You have a massive amount of wasted time, effort and money in moving Correx about.

Tell us about the consultancy you have started up now.

My business now is offering a consultancy service on templating, supply and installation of all types of stone and solid worksurfaces to retailers, people I have worked with for many, many years. I’m also offering some of my knowledge and experience on systems and the development of systems for smaller fabricators, who are often stretched and just haven’t got the time or experience to put new systems into place to be scalable.

So many of the fabricators and factories I’m talking to are stuck in that rut where they can’t move forward from where they are.

Nobody has the time, so you offer your services to see if you can save them that time somewhere?

Indeed – save them time, save them money. Putting in new procedures because so many of the people I’m talking to are still working in what we would have called, back in the day, working off the back of a fag packet.

A lot of the people in this industry started by working with their hands. You would happily be the head to go along with those hands?

Yes. My background is purely commercial. I have never been on the tools. I have never been a templater or fitter. I have purely done the business side of it, so I can add that commercial expertise to any small business; to those companies turning over a million to one-and-half-million and run by people who know the business and are still on the tools all day every day. The moment they come off the tools and start looking at what new processes are needed they’re not producing goods and they’re not earning.

What are you looking to work on over the next year or so?

The systems that a small company turning over a million or so can afford to put into place – a fairly easy, straight forward customer relations management system (CRM) that will just manage their quotes and their jobs fairly simplistically, but ensuring the systems are followed and which any member of staff can access – right the way through to putting in much bigger systems that will run a whole company, from the initial CRM and quoting through to final invoicing.

I can offer that now, including all the training and setting up of all the products and prices for stock management. I can take it as far down the line as you need it, through to accounting to ensure every bit of the business is managed. It allows the owners to have a very quick overview of where they’re at without physically having to be sitting in front of spreadsheets all the time.

When it comes to Brexit and Covid, are we out the other side?

I think our industry is. The bigger impact has been to our clients – to kitchen retailers, building contractors and main contractors, with them getting product through so they’re ready for when they need us. We have a shortage of labour in this country. It has hit our industry as well, but has predominantly hit those trades before we are needed.

We are coming to the end of marble quartz, maybe? Where would you want to be as a fabricator?

I would want to be offering more than just worktops. I think one of the big things in our industry is that getting a client is tough; converting an enquiry into a job is tough. So we have to make more of it; come up with a way to get a bigger order number off the same order, whether that’s offering different types of splashbacks, offering sideboards and furniture for the lounge, offering elements within the same job to beef the number up.

People are talking about glass worktops coming back. They say there’s been developments that make the glass stronger, and that might attract some at the top end of the market. In stone, ideally marble with a decent finish to it. Something that’s sustainable, manageable, will live up to clients’ expectations as a kitchen worktop.

And bathrooms?

Absolutely. Two or three of my big clients do kitchens and bathrooms. If someone is doing a refurbishment that involves a kitchen it probably means there are also two or three bathrooms and perhaps a utility or downstairs cloakroom.

It always makes me laugh that as an industry we fight over 5m2 in the kitchen when there’s perhaps 90m2 in the bathrooms in the same house.

I totally agree. Once you have that client on board they’re trusting you because they have placed their biggest order with you. To pick up a few bathrooms that might only be £10,000-£15,000 each, but there might be four or five of them and a downstairs cloakroom, is not so difficult. Tiles, stone worktops, window cills and the rest can increase the value of the job massively, just by making sure we win those other areas.

So you can help fabricators make the most of what they have, saving them time and eventually money?

Making them more profitable, categorically. Enabling them to be scalable. If there’s one big message for smaller companies it’s that they can’t grow if everything’s done in a notebook on a desk somewhere, because that’s not scalable.

A joint initiative between Welsh Slate owner Breedon Group, Network Rail and the Welsh Government has brought the disused freight yard sidings at Llandudno Junction back to life.

The Llandudno Junction freight yard had not been used for many years, but vegetation removal, track repairs and refurbishment of the points that allow trains to move into the sidings have brought it back into service.

The yard is near Welsh Slate's main Penrhyn Quarry. The main purpose of re-opening the freight yard is to make it easier to move up to 260,000 tonnes of Welsh Slate aggregates, ranging from sub-base to decorative aggregate, a year, with trains running weekly.

Typically, the trains will carry 1,500 tonnes of material at a time rather than the 28 tonnes an individual lorry can carry. Using trains will cut CO2 emissions, road traffic and operating costs, making it economically and environmentally viable to transport the aggregates further afield.

Welsh Slate is famous for its roofing slates, but it takes the removal of a lot of slate to produce the roofing slates. Some of the waste has always been sold as aggregate but the new railhead should mean more of it can now be sold. Waste slate tipped down the sides of mountains is a feature of the landscape of Snowdonia, now part of a World Heritage Site.

The first freight train to leave the refurbished railhead was taking the equivalent of 76 lorry-loads of Welsh Slate Hard Grey Type 1 sub-base aggregates to Luton.

Welsh Slate became part of the Breedon Group in 2018, when Breedon bought the previous owner, the Irish Lagan Group (read more about that here).

Breedon, based in Derbyshire, already operates several other railheads around the UK, and this latest investment will further improve its distribution network for customers and lower the carbon footprint of Breedon operations.

The project was supported by the Freight Facilities Grant Scheme, which encourages modal shifts to deliver environmental benefits by removing HGVs from roads.

Andy Roberts, Breedon’s General Manager for the West of England & North Wales, says: “At Breedon, we have a strong commitment to sustainability. We recognise the important practical and environmental benefits of rail freight, so we are pleased that this new facility will allow a greater range of slate materials to be delivered across the UK in a more sustainable manner. We are delighted to have worked with the Welsh Government and our partners to invest in this high-quality freight facility in North Wales.”

John Smith, Chief Executive Officer at GB Railfreight, which is operating the trains, added: “We’re delighted to be transporting slate aggregates from Llandudno Junction. It is encouraging to see the Government and the private sector come together to enable a service that will transport key construction materials, create employment opportunities, and drive local growth. This new service will demonstrate the commercial, environmental and safety benefits of transporting goods by rail freight.”

In addition to road and rail, Welsh Slate also ships slate aggregates by sea to destinations in the UK and Europe from Port Penrhyn in Bangor.

The Stone of Scone (or Stone of Destiny) is to be brought back to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of Charles III.

The stone, a block of coarse-grained, pinkish buff sandstone, was returned to Scotland in 1996, having been taken by England’s King Edward I in 1296 and used for his coronation. It had been used for centuries before that for the coronation of Scottish kings.

In England, it took on a ceremonial role in the coronation throne to become a traditional part of the crowning of British monarchs, including Queen Elizabeth II, who was crowned in 1953 and whose funeral was on 19 September 2022.

It had been built into the coronation throne in Westminster Abbey and stayed there for 700 years (apart from three months in 1950-51 when some Scottish students reclaimed it) until it was permanently returned to Scotland on Scottish patron saint St Andrew’s Day during the 700th anniversary of its removal. Its return to Scotland took place the year before the independence referendum, when the Scots voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. It has been in Edinburgh Castle since then.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES), which manages Edinburgh Castle, has confirmed the stone will be used in King Charles III's coronation. Afterwards it will return to Edinburgh Castle's Crown Room.

HES has always said: "The stone will only leave Scotland again for a coronation in Westminster Abbey."

To explore the stone in extraordinary detail, click here. 

There is more about the cultural significance of stones in Scotland in Beatrice Searle's book Stone Will Answer, published in 2023. To read a review of the book, click here.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is warning companies to act now to protect employees from fatal lung diseases resulting from exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust.

It says it will be focusing its inspections in October on companies where RCS could be a problem, which includes stone companies such as worktop fabricators where high silica content materials such as granite, engineered quartz and ceramics are used.

HSE warns that if RCS is breathed in, the particles can cause irreversible lung disease that can be fatal.

Every year, around 12,000 people in Great Britain die from work-related lung diseases linked to past exposure to hazardous substances at work.

These deaths are preventable if exposure to the risks is controlled effectively.    

By breathing it in, you can develop the following lung diseases: 

• Silicosis
  making breathing more difficult and increasing the risk of lung infections. Silicosis usually follows exposure over many years, but extremely high exposures can lead rapidly to ill health
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  a group of lung diseases, including bronchitis and emphysema, resulting in severe breathlessness, prolonged coughing and chronic disability. It can be very disabling and is a leading cause of death
• Lung cancer
  Heavy and prolonged exposure to RCS dust can cause lung cancer. When someone already has silicosis, there is an increased risk of lung cancer. 

Watch the HSE short video on silicosis, where HSE’s Chief Medical Advisor, Professor David Fishwick, explains more about this disease.

Employers have a legal duty to put in place suitable arrangements to manage health & safety and comply with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002.

In October, HSE inspectors will be checking that companies understand the risks associated with RCS inhalation and have effective controls in place to keep workers safe. 

 HSE has refreshed its silica guidance for stone companies. Click on the links below to download it: 

• Stoneworkers - COSHH direct advice sheets
• Brick and tile silica - COSHH direct advice sheets 

Dekton has introduced two new ranges that it promises are easier for worktop fabricators to process, thanks to what it calls ‘Quick Cut Technology’ (sometimes presented as Kwik Cut).

A request by Natural Stone Specialist magazine for more information about the changes that have been made that make Dekton easier to cut have not elicited any more information, but Cosentino, the Spanish company that makes Dekton, does say that Quick Cut Technology does not alter the technical advantages that Dekton has always had, although it makes the material lighter. It says it makes cutting Dekton up to three times faster, as well as providing greater flexibility and cleaner edges. And it means tools do not wear so quickly. 

There is a video by Cosentino about Dekton Quick Cut Technology on YouTube (click here to watch it), but it doesn't provide any enlightenment about what has changed in the making of Dekton that improves its workability.

The new collections are called Kraftizen and Onirika.

Kraftizen consists of five colours with rich, deep textures reminiscent of Venetian stucco. While the eight Onirika designs continue the enduringly popular marble look, mostly whites but one black.

The Kraftizen designs have been given the names Umber, Nacre, Argentium, Micron and Albarium. The Onirika designs are called Awake, Lucid, Somnia, Neural, Trance, Vigil, Daze and Morpheus.

Dekton is A1 fire rated and can be used both indoors and outdoors for facades, paving, cladding, worktops, floors, linings and no doubt other applications. It is manufactured in large-format slabs (up to 3200mm x 1440mm) in five different thicknesses (0.4cm, 0.8cm, 1.2cm, 2cm and 3cm). All Dekton slabs incorporate material recycled from the product’s own manufacturing process. They include at least 50% recycled material.

www.dektonsurfaces.co.uk

The Kraftizen Collection

The Onirika Collection

Hampshire stone company stoneCIRCLE has a new GMM Litox five-axes saw thanks to support from the Leader programme, which is partly funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development.

The new machine replaces a 22-year-old manual saw. Its 1000mm saw blade is the largest in the stoneCIRCLE factory.

The main motivation behind the purchase was to produce complex 3D stone pieces more accurately and faster. The 1000mm diameter blade means that the company will be able to cut blocks up to 400mm thick, which are often specified for building masonry, artwork and solid stone cantilevered stairs.

Because the saw can be programmed and does not need to be supervised, this releases the mason to carry out highly skilled finishing work on the projects as they come off the saws.

It will also reduce the amount of grinding and rubbing the masons do by hand, reducing the amount of dust created and exposure to Hand Arm Vibration from the hand tools.

Basingstoke-based stoneCIRCLE has been in business since 1968 and has grown into one of the largest stone fabricators in England, employing more than 50 people.

The company fabricates and installs stone for domestic and commercial projects, including prestigious hotels and retail stores such as Harrods, where it is involved in the ongoing refurbishment.

The ever-changing market in recent years has presented challenges for the stone industry as a whole, and being able to adapt to the unstable economic conditions has become necessary for Vetro Tooling, in Basildon, Essex, to keep its customers running without disruptions to their tooling requirements.

Vetro has been working closely with its suppliers and developing its own systems to prevent disruptions to supply.

Vetro is continually evolving and improving its stone tooling with products like the new range of Cosentino-approved Ace tooling. This includes bridge saw blades and drills.

Another new addition is the Swift bridge saw blade range. With its fast cutting speed and high quality finish, Swift is perfect for granite, quartzite and engineered stone. It became an instant customer favourite in field trials.

Vetro says it has had nothing but good feedback on testing both these two new ranges, and that’s what it strives to achieve over its whole range of tooling.

The new ranges sit alongside current customer favourites such as K-Line, Vetro’s premium range of CNC tooling.

Looking ahead, Vetro has some major projects in the pipeline, including website development and a new tooling catalogue.

The in-house office and marketing team has expanded significantly in the past few years and is working hard to bring these new ideas to life in the near future.

With the disruption to supply chains lately, Vetro’s workshop has become more valuable than ever. Being able to create bespoke tooling in-house and making technical adjustments to tooling based on customer specific requirements with just a few days’ lead time is id an attractive service for customers.

Because Vetro is not just a re-seller. Its workshop engineers have years of experience in the design and engineering behind the tooling for the industry, and Vetro’s research and development department is always advancing the limits of what tooling can achieve.

The company’s re-dressing of diamond tooling has also become what is known for, in both the glass and stone industries, and this service has become increasingly popular. Vetro has had to add to its in-house CNC machines over the past couple of years to keep up with the growing demand without compromising the fast turnaround time it has become famous for.

As well as the tools, Vetro sells Denver stoneworking machinery in Ireland, both north and south of the border.

Following Brexit, it has worked closely with its Irish customers to make the Brexit transition as easy for them as possible. Its sales and engineering team spend a lot of time in Ireland – for sales, consultancy and back-up services.

Whatever Irish companies want – be it tooling, machinery or engineering – Vetro is working hard to maintain the level of customer service its customers have come to expect and which Vetro accepts they deserve.

Vetro will have representatives on the Denver stand at the Marmo+Mac exhibition in Verona, Italy, 27-30 September.

Vetro says Denver has some inspiring Stone machinery and is excelling in technological advances. At Marmo+Mac, among the machine Denver is showing are the Quota Stone 3350 CNC, the new four-axes Action Monobloc Saw, and the five-axes all-purpose CNC/saw, Formula Lab. The machines on the stand will be performing simulations and Denver says it would be delighted to give readers a demonstration in Verona.

www.vetrotooling.com

The government is to cap energy prices for businesses in line with the two-year domestic cap, now called an ‘Energy Price Guarantee’, announced on 8 September, although for businesses it will only last for six months.

The new energy price cap for consumers kicks in from 1 October, restricting energy charges to an average of £2,500 a year for the next two years. This is automatic, applies to all households and is in addition to the £400 energy bills discount for households.

As businesses have not previously benefited from an energy price cap and are not always able to secure their energy price through fixed deals, many are reporting projected increases in costs of gas and electricity of more than 500%.

That is addressed by the new six-month scheme for businesses and other non-domestic energy users (including charities and public sector organisations like schools).

This is intended to protect businesses from the soaring energy costs and provide them with some certainty for planning.

After the initial six-month scheme, the Government promises on-going, focused support for vulnerable industries.

Government borrowing in the region of £100billion-£150billion will be used pay energy suppliers, many of which are earning record profits thanks to the high prices, the difference between the cap and what they would charge their customers were it not in place.

Schemes previously funded by green levies, which are suspended during the scheme, will also be funded by government borrowing during the two-year period.

At the same time the government will seek to secure new sources of energy supply, including allowing onshore fracking, which some fear causes earthquakes, more gas and oil exploration in the North Sea, and more nuclear and renewable energy generation.

The government has set a target for the UK to become a net energy exporter once again by 2040.

A review is to be held into how the UK can become a Net Zero CO₂e contributor to the atmosphere by 2050, a target enshrined in law, in an economically-efficient way without placing undue burdens on businesses or consumers.

The review will be chaired by Chris Skidmore MP and is required to report by the end of this year.

Ten years ago John Rushworth established his own company, Restore London, with offices in site of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

The location was chosen because the company wanted to work on the historic buildings in the centre of London, and John reasoned that having offices there would help by enabling the company's senior people to respond instantly to clients' needs.

When John welcomed colleagues and guests to a celebration of Restore London's 10th anniversary in Drapers Hall in Throgmorton Avenue, EC2, he recalled how, when he told people he was naming his company Restore London, some had said it sounded like a campaign. And he said in some ways it had been a campaign – a campaign to look after the impressive built heritage of the capital.

The anniversary celebrations were held at Drapers Hall, one of London's Livery Company halls, because it has many examples of Restore London's work, including the cleaning and, where necessary, repair of the Portland stone from which the hall is built. 

Working with Purcell Architects, Restore London has, in its 10-year history, been involved with various projects at Drapers Hall, rebuilt in 1772, repairing and maintaining it.

John praised the team that forms Restore London. He said the word 'team' was often over-used, but it meant a lot to Restore London. "If you take 'team' out of 'teamwork' all you're left with is work," said John.

He is proud of his company's team of stonemasons and other skilled people who enjoy the work they conscientiously carry out on London's built heritage, as he told Natural Stone Specialist magazine earlier this year (you can read that report about Restore London here) and he thanked the clients, customers, colleagues and supply chains Restore London has worked with over the years for their part in the company's success – success that would see its turnover in its tenth year break through the £10million mark. And he thanked his wife and fellow Director, Claire, for her patience, advice and support.

The 10th anniversary celebrations in Drapers Hall took place on the evening of 8 September and during them came the sad announcement that The Queen had died. 

Singleton Birch, which supplies hydraulic limes and pre-mixes used in association with natural stone (among other lime products), has been acquired by Mississippi Lime Company (MLC), an independent American supplier of lime products.

The acquisition, which the companies say will power the next phase of growth for Singleton Birch, is part of MLC’s strategy to drive growth, innovation, and sustainability through geographic expansion and new products and technologies.

Mississippi Lime Company is part of HBM Holdings, headquartered in St Louis, Missouri. It is an international supplier of high-calcium lime products and technical solutions. The family-owned business has a history stretching back more than a century.

Paul Hogan (left of photo), president and chief executive officer of MLC, said on 8 September when the acquisition was announced: “For more than 115 years Mississippi Lime has been focused on meeting the evolving needs and priorities of our customers. That focus has served our customers, our employees, and our business very well.

“Our approach is to grow by finding businesses that represent a good cultural fit for us and can complement what we already provide to customers. Singleton Birch are a great fit and we are delighted to welcome them to the Mississippi Lime family today.

Singleton Birch is based in Melton Ross, north Lincolnshire, where it employs more than 150 people. It will continue to trade under its existing branding and the management team, led by chief executive officer Richard Stansfield, will remain in place.

Paul Hogan: “Singleton Birch have done tremendous work and we are grateful that Richard and the leadership team will remain in their roles leading that business. This acquisition is about growth, and we do not anticipate reducing the number of jobs at Singleton Birch as a result of this transaction.”

Richard Stansfield says: “Being part of the Mississippi Lime family will enable us to invest more and power the growth of Singleton Birch. We’re delighted to have a partner for the next stage in our development that shares our culture and values.”

The largest shareholder in Singleton Birch was previously the Katherine Martin Charitable Trust. The sale of shares in Singleton Birch will benefit the three charities the trust supports: the NSPCC, RSPCA, and Barnardo’s.

www.singletonbirch.co.uk