AFFORDABLE GRANITE REVIEW OF 2018

Looking back at 2018

So, it’s a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Affordable Granite! In this week of holiday, with the office and workshop shut, we thought we would have a look back at some of the highlights of the last year.
 
2018 wasn’t all easy. The pre-Brexit wobble, with some lack of consumer confidence, has hit our industry as it has many others. At times we have had to work hard for sales, but while some other worktop firms have hit big problems, we have held our own and been able to continue positive development as a company. It is that positive story that we want to tell.

Christmas Card 2018 Small

A year of good developments in the workshop

As mentioned in our blog back in October, we have invested in a second Intermac CNC machine. Installed in November, we are not quite sure how we would have got through the Christmas rush without it! Early in the New Year I hope to do a full shoot of the workshop as it now is. Many of our images of the factory on this website are seriously out of date; our present workshopis a matter of pride with a seriousness about big scale production at high quality that we have never achieved before.

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A year of good visits and developed relationships with suppliers

Between us we have been to several industry exhibitions and made visits to key suppliers over the last year. Naomi and Cassie’s visit to Milan, for the Design Show, has made them completely unbearable on the subject of textural contrasts and metallic finishes ever since! Andy’s visit to Caesarstone was not only helpful to get an understanding of this big quartz manufacturers (growing fast in the British market) but also led to some really useful ongoing relationships with other fabricators. Competitors can be good friends, and we actually sometimes need each other – a highlight of the year for the boss.

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Cass at the Design Show in Milan

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Andy’s fabricator posse during the Caesarstone visit

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Hege Lundh of Lundh’s at the Gerald Culliford Open Day

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Naomi with Kelley from Cambria at the KBB show

Last visit of the year – the Cosentino open evening at Hook

A year of good installations and happy customers

We have fitted a few worktops in 2018! Well over a seven hundred homes have had a visit from the magic silver vans and our equally magic fitters. An amazing proportion of the worktops have been white – see our recent article. But we have also installed a whole range of materials which have been new to us or have been particularly exciting. We are proud of our work, and proud of another year as the leading granite and quartz worktop provider for the South East.

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Classic Quartz Statuario Venato in Reigate – as Cassie says, “sick vein-matching”

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Dekton Trilium in Slinfold, West Sussex – see our case study

Cosmic White Granite Worktops, Redhill Surrey

Cosmic White granite worktops in Redhill – see our case study 

Oxted Surrey Affordable Granite Silestone Eternal Calacatta Gold

Silestone Eternal Calacatta Gold quartz worktops in Oxted, Surrey – see our case study

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A slab of Paisley Cream granite

A year of random and fun moments – and a memorable Christmas party!

2018 was the year of the pigeon and of the earthquakes! Life on the farm is never dull, but this year has perhaps been one of the most eventful. We have probably had the best rapport as a team, with a lot of fun moments. Bring on 2019!

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Our lost pigeon

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We never expected to be looking at local seismograph readouts!

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From spring on the farm…

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 …to our Christmas Party

2018 was a year and a half! As we come to the end of it, we wish you and yours all the best for the New Year.  The UK faces many challenges, as does UK business. May we all come through it smiling. And possibly with fewer earthquakes!

We are Affordable Granite, the leading installer of granite and quartz worktops in Surrey, Sussex and across the South East. For questions, queries and quotes for these and other materials,  please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01293 863992 or by email on sales@affordablegranite.co.uk. Or you can use our quotation or contact forms.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photography: by and large, Andrew King

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