Fox Marble Holdings Plc (LON:FOX), the AIM listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region, has today announced that it has installed a new state-of-the-art Computer Numerical Control (“CNC”) machine and a block vacuum pump machine in the Company’s processing factory in Pristine, Kosovo. These additions to the new marble processing factory will provide additional capacity to meet increased order flow and improve margins.
The brand new, CNC machine is capable of automatically processing many varied shapes of material from slabs and small blocks, including 1,500 square metres of marble tiles per day. The machine is fully operational and has just manufactured the Company’s first order in which the whole process has been completed in house for “cut-to-size” tiles. Currently the only one of its kind throughout the Balkans and Greece, the CNC machine has been supplied by Gravellona Macchine Marmo, one of the leading manufacturers of cutting and polishing machinery based in Northern Italy.
In addition, Fox Marble has just completed the installation of a block vacuum pump machine, which is a more cost-effective way of adding to the inventory of marble blocks eligible for sale. This machine allows resin to be absorbed by blocks that have micro-cracks or fractures in them. As a result, the machine will improve the yield achievable from the quarries and increase the pricing of blocks which would otherwise have been considered lower quality.
Chris Gilbert, CEO of Fox Marble Holdings Plc, commented: “Our fully operational factory now has the additional capability to process material-to-order at speed. We are confident that the cost effectiveness, flexibility and improved sophistication in our processing, delivered by this machinery, will impact positively on margins in the current year.
The installation of this new machinery also allows us to more effectively access the local market for tiles and “cut-to-size” orders, as well as servicing our international customers.”
