Creative Colours - A Spectrum of Inspiration - Tile and Stone Journal

STONECREST MARBLE
Building a brand based
on quality and service
Over the past seven years Murat and Bill Yurtseven have
build Stonecrest Marble into one of the leading importers
and distributors of calibrated natural stone in the UK. Joe
Simpson visited the company’s North London HQ to learn
the brothers’ plans for building the Stonecrest brand.
Above: Three views of
Stonecrest Marble’s
showroom.
Back in 2003, Murat Yurtseven and his brother, Bill,
were respectively a disillusioned estate agent who
had worked for some of London’s highest profile and
most aggressive realtors, and a recruitment consultancy
entrepreneur looking for a fresh challenge. Having
decided to go into business together, the question was:
what business? Not surprisingly, given that their father
was an experienced tiler, their first thoughts turned to
setting up an importer and distributor of top-of-therange
ceramic tiles. From here it was but a short step to
natural stone.
Seven years on and the business the brothers started
with little capital but boundless enthusiasm – Stonecrest
Marble – is now a force to be reckoned with in the dynamic
UK dimensional stone sector. With around 30,000 sq.
metres of stone tile in stock in their warehouse in north
London, Stonecrest now services around 150 customers.
The company directly imports marble, limestone, travertine
and granite from Spain, Italy and France as well as
Turkey; the latter being the bedrock of the business.
Adhesives and grouts from Larsen and MPG cleaners, sealers
and waxes, complement the stone tiles.
Today around 90% of Stonecrest’s business is derived
from Turkish quarried and processed stone, which they
sell to a cross section of retailers, wholesalers and distributors.
The company imports around eight containers of
stone a week. About 60% of this is bound for third party
distributors, around 30% for independent retailer and the
remainder for Stonecrest’s own retail customers, local
builders and developers.
The Yurtseven’s have built the business on three clear
business principles. The first is customer service, which
means holding stock and offering effective on-time delivery.
The second is quality. In the UK stone industry this is
probably the key issue, because the image of stones such
as travertine have been damaged by the widespread
availability of poor quality lightweight stone with extensive
honeycombing filled with low quality resins.
Stonecrest prides itself on the fact that its commercial
grade travertine is equal to most suppliers’ first grade
stone; while it believes that its first grade travertine is
unsurpassed in the market. Stonecrest has been shrewd
enough to employ a freelance quality assurance manager
– a former quarry employee - in Turkey who samples the
stone at the processor prior to despatch. This not only
means that any problem consignments remain in Turkey,
but concentrates the minds of Stonecrest’s Turkish suppliers
who make sure that the company receives excellent
service. And with two large processors in Turkey now
reliant on Stonecrest for the majority of their business, real
pressure can be brought to bear should quality performance
drop off. “She has our full authority to take action,”
says Murat. “Her presence shows the companies that we
are serious and it really does keep them on their toes. The
key to success in sourcing from Turkey is not owning
quarries, but having strong business relationships. In this
business it is all about trust and we have that element in
our favour.”
The final pillar of the business is value for money.
“People have tightened up due to the recession,” explains
Murat. “They are looking for a good deal and certainly
won’t pay more for the same product they can buy
cheaper elsewhere, no matter how good your service levels
are. However, it’s not all about price; the real secret is
value.”
One of the keys to Stonecrest’s ability to offer this value
is its liquidity. They have a long standing borrowing facil-
38 TSJ JUNE 2010