CULLIFORD OF KINGSTON, SURREY: OPEN DAY JUNE 2018

Culliford (Gerald Culliford of Kingston) is one of the best-known names in the stone trade in the UK. Generally known as “Culliford’s”, I have no idea of how many times I have called 02083 904656 and spoken to James or Iwona or Dan… or Matt… or Stuart or one of the other members of staff. The questions are nearly always the same – stone availability? slab size? price per square metre? is it good stuff? can you send a picture? The answers are always helpful.

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Culliford’s Stone Yard

Culliford’s sales staff are uniformly polite, knowledgeable and utterly professional. When I urge customers to visit the Kingston stoneyard I often tell them that Culliford’s is the wholesale company who set the standard of customer service which we would aspire to live up to ourselves, in the retail sector of the market.  We have massive respect for them, as you can tell.  In my decade in the industry I have seen some stone wholesalers go under, with others hanging by a thread. Culliford’s is strong. They have weathered major recessions before, and I can see them pulling through any storms that may be over the horizon.

Culliford’s have had open days before, but I have not got along to one during my decade in the industry. As a result, with the exception of Matt (our Radianz rep) and others who get out on the road, many of the staff were only names and voices to me. It was really good to meet face to face, and enjoy a day of great hospitality and good stone industry talk.

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Neil in the spacious and organised office

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At the end of the yard, two stunning slabs of 20mm thick Onyx. This is NOT really a kitchen worktop material, but I had to include the photo. The translucence is breathtaking – those shadows and light patches are coming straight through from the back of the stone. These would be superb slabs for wall-mounting with proper back-lights.

Culliford is a wholesaler. As such, they do not sell directly to the public at all – their business is with people like us. But they know that ultimately our customer is their customer, and fabricators like ourselves can send clients along to Kingston in total confidence.

Culliford’s will not discuss prices with our customers, but they will give an indication of which stones are relatively more or less pricey. Quite often, we send people along who have already had a  quote from us – and we can ask Culliford’s staff to give some idea of whether a stone that our client is falling for is more or less than whatever has been quoted. It’s a rough guide only, but useful.

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An utterly gorgeous slab of Confusion. Again, as a marble, this material is not one that we would be expecting to cut for kitchen worktops, but I include it to show some of the amazing variety of stone at Culliford’s.

What we value is the respect that this wholesaler shows to both us and our clients, who are treated like royalty by all members of the yard’s staff.

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Marinace Aquarius

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Rainforest Green

Oddly enough, the day after my visit to Culliford, I found myself in the Panda Mami restaurant in York. I immediately recognised the lovely stone decking out the reception counter and the washrooms – Rainforest Green.

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Close up of a slab of Majestic Brown

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A lovely, non-polished slab of Belvedere I think – or is it? Someone at Culliford’s please help me!

Sapienstone

For many decades, Culliford’s has been the leading supplier of high-end natural stones. As the UK market has diversified, and as new materials have been created, they have kept pace. They are the UK importers of Radianz (formerly Samsung Radianz) and also of Sapienstone – and Italian take on the sintered-particle, pseudo-ceramic kitchen worktop. These materials are extremely hard, withstand heat, and practically impossible to stain.

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Cooking demonstration in the Sapienstone cabin.

I think that Sapienstone is one of the best in terms of appearance and feel, too. My opinion may have been helped along by the cooking demonstration from a chef so uncompromisingly Italian we had to use his language to chat. Amazing pasta! Nice glass of Prosecco! Great worktops! 😉

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Marinace Rosso

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Madagascan Lemurian Blue

Lundhs

Culliford’s are the sole UK importers of Lundhs Granite from Norway. You could say that Lundh’s are to quarrying and stone processing what Culliford’s are to wholesale stone. Fantastic quality control from quarry to kitchen!

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Hege Lundh at Culliford’s

It was a real pleasure to meet Hege Lundh at the Lundhs gazebo and talk in depth about the company’s work. Their own quarries produce Blue and Emerald Pearl, and Labrador Antique. All of these are effectively rebranded by Lundhs so as to be able to assert control of quality over the whole process. They also hold significant stakes in a number of other key natural stone quarries, including Baltic Brown. I wrote a piece on Lundh’s some time ago in the blog – please see here.

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Lundhs have the best sample presentation in the business! Here is their basic set of products in polished and satin finishes. I guess the box is Norwegian Wood. 😉

All in all, it was a good visit – really useful for me and I hope I will be back at Culliford’s before long. Just being able to wander around the place, taking in the slabs and using the camera was a great way to spend a couple of hours. If you are looking for something really different, really special, then Culliford’s is the place. We have found over the years that for customers who are a bit stuck as top what they really want, then a visit to Kingston can often un-jam the process.

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Always glad to be able to snap the boss with a beer in his hand… 

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We are the original Affordable Granite company. We have installed granite worktops in many parts of the UK since our beginnings, but the Home Counties south of London are our real home turf. Kingston upon Thames, home for generations to Gerald Culliford’s natural stone wonderland, is our patch too when it comes to installing granite worktops. If you are from that part of London, feel free to drop in there, and say we sent you. That way you can choose a stone, get your quote from us, and be installed with something really special the most efficient and painless way possible. Try us.

Our contact page.

The Gerald Culliford website.

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