It was a case of ‘Advance to Mayfair’ for Fox Marble Holdings PLC (LON:FOX) as it announced a potential order from London’s poshest district.
The east European marble quarries operator said the developers of Audley Square in Mayfair have specified Fox Marble's Illyric White and Selene Grigio marble for all of the interior common areas of the residences.
Once final plans for the property - being built on the site of a former NCP car park, of all things - are complete Fox Marble expects to receive a formal purchase order. The Audley Square development will not be recognised in the order book until such time as a formal purchase order is received.
Elsewhere in west London, the developers of a large £40mln seven bedroom residential mansion in West London have ordered Fox Marble's Flora, Grigio Argento and Sivec marble. The marble is due for shipment in the next two months; the development project is scheduled to complete this spring.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world … An exclusive residential property located in Point Piper, Sydney, Australia, which is expected to be the most expensive house in Australia when completed, has ordered Fox Marble's Sivec, Flora, Rosso Cait and Etruscan gold marble to be used in its construction. The materials were shipped in December 2016.
The two confirmed orders are worth around €300,000.
“These latest orders continue to demonstrate the desirability of our premium marble products as the stone of choice in some of the most prestigious and expensive residential developments taking place around the world,” said Chris Gilbert, chief executive officer of Fox Marble.
Gilbert believes the orders demonstrate the reputation of the Fox Marble brand is growing, as it establishes a track record of effective production and distribution of high-class marble.
Looking at the order book, the directors’ expectations for the orders that will be filled this year remain broadly in line with what was outlined in the company’s December trading update.
Speaking to Proactive Investors, Gilbert confirmed that these orders and specifications are “new news”, and confirm that Fox’s product range has found favour in the high-end market.
Furthermore, it is not just the coveted Illyric White that the developers are ordering; it’s the whole gamut of the Fox Marble range.
The Fox Marble chief executive said the orders and inclinations of interest were “huge wins” for the company “and not just for bragging rights”.
He made the point that these sorts of prestige orders are going to open a lot of doors for its sales force when they target the volume market.
“We announced in December we had an order book for 2017 of €2.9mln. Today’s news gives us increased confidence in our ability to convert those orders into sales,” Gilbert told Proactive Investors.