Brand Story
Spanish brand Cosentino’s journey to achieving global success by marrying craftsmanship and technological innovation in the surface industry
From extracting white marble to developing one of the world’s most popular forms of engineered quartz, Francisco “Paco” Martínez-cosentino Justo has done it all. Singapore Tatler Homes visits the Cosentino Group’s headquarters in Almería, Spain and talks to the man at the helm of the familyowned business that has found global success
Looking at Cosentino’s sprawling headquarters that spans more than a million square metres, it’s hard to imagine that only a decade ago, this impressive network of production facilities and office buildings didn’t exist. Today, the site provides jobs for more than 1,200 employees living in the town of Macael, located in the Spanish province of Almería, and continues a legacy of working with stone for which the community is well known. According to the president and CEO of Cosentino, Francisco Martínez- Cosentino Justo, commonly known as Paco, the journey towards establishing Cosentino’s industrial park hasn’t been easy.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
In 1940, the first members of the Martínez-Cosentino family started working in a marble quarry in Macael, manufacturing simple products from natural stone. Back then, the town was famed for its production of highquality white marble—macael marble was a material sought after by renowned architects because of its unique colouration, owing to the distinct composition of natural minerals in the mountains surrounding the area. Second-generation family members Paco and his brother decided to set up their own marble mining business in 1979. Paco’s initial
PACO’S PURSUIT FOR THE IDEAL STONE SURFACE LED TO THE CREATION OF SILESTONE IN 1990.
attempts ended in failure as he realised that his quarries were not producing quality marble. “It was important to know the mountains and, unfortunately for us, we didn’t have good quarries for extracting white Macael marble in the early 1970s,” he recalls. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that Paco finally discovered a quarry with a good vein that was producing high-quality Macael marble. However, by then, the amount of quality marble that could be extracted from Macael had dropped sharply—as did market demand for it. This resulted in the closure of many mines, and the community faced an imminent loss of livelihood.
ROCK-SOLID DETERMINATION
While Paco bought over neighbouring plots and increased the size of his existing quarry— Cosentino’s current marble quarry in Macael is a combination of five quarries—he also saw an urgent need to search for a new material that would not only be in demand but also be sustainable for the long term. He explains, “My vision was to find a solution for the entire community in Macael so we need not depend on marble anymore. The idea came to me as I was walking through the quarry, watching the men at work. The marble extraction process left a lot of marble remains that were just lying there as waste. That’s when I became interested in developing a product that could use these valuable marble bits.” From that point, Paco began investing in research and development into a manufactured stone surface made by fusing stone pieces together with resin. While the initial creation of a manufactured stone surface called Marmolstone didn’t meet with much interest from the buying public, Paco’s relentless pursuit for the ideal stone surface led to the creation of Silestone in 1990.
THE SILESTONE GENERATION
Following its official launch in 1992, Silestone became a global success as a popular surface material. Comprising more than 90 per cent natural quartz content that is compacted at high pressure with a blend of crystal, glass and polyester resin, Silestone offers the same weight and feel of natural stone with added benefits when used for bathroom counters and kitchen worktops. Advantages include the wide array of unique finishes (polished, suede or volcano) and colours that can be achieved with the material, making it adaptable to any interior style. At the same time, Silestone creates a hygienic surface with a property known as bacteriostatic protection, owing to a cuttingedge silver technology developed exclusively for Cosentino. With quartz recognised as one of the toughest stones on earth, Silestone’s high quartz content also makes the surface as tough and resistant to stains and scratches as it is durable and beautiful to behold. More than 90 colours are available, making Silestone a prime material choice in various interior applications, such as kitchen worktops, sinks and panels as well as bathroom counters, shower trays, washbasins, wall cladding and flooring. According to Paco, it has also been used for stairs, wall partitions and bar counters. Established designers such as Daniel Libeskind, the Campana brothers and Swedish design studio Form Us With Love have also utilised it for various architectural and homeware projects.
THE NEXT LAP
The growing demand for Silestone prompted many competitors in the quartz stone industry to offer similar products soon after its release. This prompted Paco to spearhead his next project: developing another new material that would address some of Silestone’s limitations. “Silestone was a fantastic product, but I wanted to see how we could improve on it,” he explains. “Now, while Silestone is an ideal material for interior usage, it wasn’t suitable for outdoor use because of the way the resin in the material reacts when exposed to harsh outdoor conditions. So the aim was to come up with a new formula that would combine rocks and natural minerals without the use of resin. We achieved this with Dekton.” An ultra-compact surface, Dekton is composed of a mixture of raw materials commonly used in the manufacture of porcelain, glass and quartz surfaces, that is combined into a large-format slab (up to 3.2m by 1.44m) through the use of exclusive sinterised particle technology, or TSP. The innovative ultra-compaction process results in a Dekton surface. Not only is it
resistant to UV rays, scratches, stains and thermal shock, it also has a very low waterabsorption capacity and is available in varying thicknesses of 0.8cm, 1.2cm or 2cm. More than 22,000 hours of research went into Dekton’s development prior to its introduction in 2013, but Paco says there is more untapped potential from this material. “Even after we began producing Dekton, we were discovering new ways of using the ultracompact surface as well as new things we could do to make it even more impressive. It’s like bringing up a child and learning new things about him or her every day,” he says.
RESISTANT TO HEAT AND FIRE, DEKTON CAN BE USED OUTDOORS AND INDOORS.
While durability is one of Dekton’s core strengths, architects and designers are drawn to it for its design versatility. The Dekton surface can recreate any type of material with highquality detail, such as the intricate looks of marble veins, granite textures and solid colours. In terms of finishes, while Dekton slabs are presented in matte finishes, Cosentino recently launched the Dekton Xgloss surfaces, which create a glossy finish through the processes of nano-coating and mechanical polishing. Resistant to heat, fire and extreme temperature, Dekton can be used outdoors as well as indoors—think exterior facades, floors and floor coverings, swimming pools, gardens, kitchens, bathrooms and furnishings.
BEYOND THE SURFACE
In addition to Silestone and Dekton, Cosentino offers other surface alternatives including Sensa, a range of granite slabs from quarries in Brazil and India which are treated with a layer of chemicals to protect against liquids, oils and sunlight, and come with a 15-year guarantee; Scalea, which includes natural stone products such as basalt, granite, slate, travertine and marble; and the premium Prexury, made from semi-precious stones and other materials, such as retro-style petrified wood and amethyst. Bringing new forms of surface materials to the world is all in a day’s work for 78-yearold Paco, who remains actively involved in the business operations, with daughter Pilar as director of strategic planning, eldest son Eduardo as president and CEO of Cosentino North America, and younger son Francisco Jr as business unit director of Cosentino North America. Although Cosentino now has more than 3,000 employees globally and more than 92 per cent of its sales comes from outside Spain, 13 members from the Cosentino family’s third generation remain part of the business. Also interesting is that today, less than one per cent of the company’s profits is attributed to Macael marble, which started the family business. “It’s important to enjoy what you do— otherwise, there’s no reason to do it,” Paco says when asked about his philosophy for steering the firm. And what of future trends in stone surfaces? “With more homes designed with integrated spaces, there’s a greater need for kitchen surfaces that are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also hygienic and easy to clean and maintain. In this aspect, I believe Cosentino leads the game—and we’ll continue to drive forward.”