Stone firm goes national

Mar 6 2008 Evening Gazette

SPECIALIST STONE workers, F Jones Cleveland, a leading contender in tonight’s Tees Valley Business Awards, which has invested more than £6m in its Middlesbrough factory over the last year, is set to launch a new national division.

Described as “a strategic move to allow the company to roll out and take control of the service element of its business”, the bathroom and kitchen surface manufacture’s new digital template and installation arm will be led by Philip Eeles as MD.

It follows news last month that it was to double production capacity after buying £450,000 of CNC cutting equipment for its 50,000sq ft plant, making F Jones Cleveland the largest investor in CNC stone technology in the UK.

The company, which sells its marble, granite and quartz work surfaces through shop fitters, architects, specifiers and kitchen and bathroom retailers, is expecting to increase its workforce to 80 and its sales to £10m over the next two years.

F Jones Cleveland will join more than 30 local companies along with sponsors of the Tees Valley Business Awards for a glittering ceremony acknowledging the very best in business at the University of Teesside.

For full coverage, see tomorrow’s nebusiness and the Tuesday supplement, plus live interviews with some of the stars of the night at www.nebusiness.co.uk