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As associate members of the RSMA, Grantex understands the importance of supplying products that provide both high performance and visibility when being utilised for demarcation applications within the UK and European transport networks.

This is essential in enabling contractors and government bodies to build a safer and long-lasting transport infrastructure for the public.

As part of their long term expansion strategy, Long Rake recently acquired the SightGRIP business and brand from Hoben International Ltd. This SightGRIP collection provides a choice of pigmented aggregates in a selection of industry favourite colours, which can be applied to surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, tarmac, wood, steel or aluminium.

These colour coated products have a close synergy with Long Rake’s existing Grantex range of anti-skid aggregates, providing highly visible, hard wearing and skid resistant products that can be utilised for demarcation within a multitude of sectors including, Highways, Pedestrian, Industrial & Retail, Rail, Leisure, Logos, Car Parks, Cycleways and Footpaths.

Long Rake Spar work alongside the leading anti-skid surfacing companies to provide an extensive range of aggregates in a variety of colours and sizes which offer long term reliability and endurance. These products are frequently specified within high friction surfacing schemes because of their skid-resistance and durability values, whilst also providing consistent colour for traffic management applications.

All products are produced specifically to order from their head offices in Derbyshire and Long Rake will be providing the same levels of industry expertise, attention to quality control and customer service as Hoben International Ltd, ensuring that the SightGRIP brand continues to develop and progress.

For more information please call Long Rake Spar on 01629 636210, email sales@sightgrip.com or visit www.sightgrip.com

Website: Sightgrip

Coming up to their 150th anniversary, Long Rake Spar are more determined than ever to continuously improve the service that it offers to customers.

At the forefront of this, is their new site acquisition in Rye, East Sussex which was purchased in March 2015 and offers great opportunities for the company to increase their exposure in the South East.

The procurement of the 20 acre production and storage facility in Rye, with capital investments of over £1 million on state of the art bagging equipment comes as part of Long Rake Spar’s long term expansion strategy. This has previously seen the company move from strength to strength and become the leading supplier of decorative aggregates into a variety of industry sectors.

With their well-established port storage facilities in Scotland and Humberside, this new location will offer unparalleled logistical efficiency to specifiers in the London and the South of England, giving them the opportunity to source products from a local site.

Over the last year a huge amount of planning has been undertaken in order to ensure the site runs efficiently and as a result it has seen a number of infrastructural changes. With the majority of the installation now completed, the company sees the arrival of its first shipment of goods into Rye which is a landmark moment for the company and signifies the start of a new era in the business.

The Celtic Mariner shipment containing 2,700 tonnes of White Dolomite aggregates will form an intrinsic part of their extensive stock holding, which already features a core range of UK sourced materials alongside more exclusive stock transferred from their Derbyshire site.

The docking facilities at Rastrum Ltd, Rye Wharf are being utilised and Long Rake are looking forward to a long and productive relationship with the Wharf which will create more jobs for the local people.

Technical Director for the Spanish Supplier, Antonio Pacheco stated: “I am delighted to be involved in such a milestone for the company. This further enhances the relationship between us and Long Rake that has developed over the past 20 years.

Managing Director for Long Rake Spar, Trevor Broadhurst commented: “As one of the largest importers of decorative aggregates in the UK, the location of the site was paramount. Rye represents a crucial gateway for importing exclusive European and worldwide material and the site allows us to continue to lead the way in product development”.

The additional facilities provide valuable storage as well as manufacturing capacity, enabling us to meet the growing demand for our products whilst continuing to provide excellent levels of customer support.

The site greatly increases Long Rake Spar’s stock holding facilities enabling the company to respond more rapidly to customer demands and increase their presence in the South East market.

The site acquisition at Rye and continued emphasis on product development and merchandising support will allow Long Rake Spar to maintain their position as the leading decorative aggregate supplier to Builders Merchants, specifiers and landscapers in the UK. For more information on their extensive product range and services contact their dedicated sales team on 01629 636210.

Rye Wharf: Rastrum Ltd at Rye Wharf

We have expanded our product selection of Scottish Pebbles and Cobbles to include a further 4 additional product sizes.

The addition of the 8-14mm and 14-20mm pebbles as well as 30-50mm and 100mm+ cobbles complement the already established best-selling sizes of 20-30mm pebbles and 50-75mm cobbles.

These naturally rounded, hard wearing granite pebbles and cobbles are a recognised industry favourite and the addition of these further sizes enables stockists to embrace the sales potential these new sizes offer.

Call us for further information on 01629 636210 or email sales@longrakespar.co.uk

Products: Scottish Pebbles

This week we were delighted to find out that one of the hauliers we use extensively have decided to name their new vehicle after one of our staff members.

K&H Bakewell Ltd based just a mile or so away from our site have officially called the lorry ‘Alice Louisa’ after Alice in our sales team. This follows on from last year when they named a vehicle ‘Annabel Lucy’ after Annabel, also in our sales team.

K&H have a variety of fleet vehicles with a range of loading / unloading facilities which is ideal for our transportation requirements. We are sure this new lorry will be a welcome addition to the fleet!

Haulier: K&H Haulage

Long Rake Spar are now approved suppliers to all 5 major buying groups within the Builders Merchant sector.

With over 145 years’ experience in the decorative aggregate sector, Long Rake Spar have gained national status as one of the UK’s largest suppliers of hard landscaping materials into builders merchants.

Our products are sourced from quarries throughout the British Isles, Europe and the Far East and part of our ongoing strategy is to continue to find and introduce new and unique decorative aggregates to the UK market.

This forward thinking approach has resonated within the builder’s merchant sector as we are now approved suppliers for all 5 major buying groups. We continue to cultivate our long established relationships with Fortis, h&b and IBC and look forward to further developing the affiliation with NBG that began at the beginning of last year. At the start of this year we were delighted to be approved as a supplier for CBA and are looking forward to cementing that relationship too.

All of our customers are fully supported by our sales and marketing teams to guarantee a high sell through rate of our products.

By continually expanding our resources and developing our on-site processing facilities, Long Rake Spar aims to support independent merchants by supplying a superior and exclusive range of decorative aggregates.

It has been a busy week for Long Rake Spar as we were exhibiting at both Futurescape and The Historic Buildings, Parks & Gardens Event on Tuesday the 17th November.

We journeyed down south for the events as Futurescape was being held at Sandown Park Racecourse and The Historic Buildings, Parks and Gardens event was at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster.

Futurescape was very busy and we had a lot of people visit the stand. It was especially nice to see so many of our existing customers there. We had with us a variety of our products from both the Natural Selection and Dried ranges, all of which attracted a lot of interest.

At The Historic Buildings, Parks & Gardens Event we exhibited with Addapgrip so had on show many of our products that go into their Resin Bound and Bonded Systems. We also had information on our Goldpath which is a self binding gravel often used for applications such as footpaths, bridleways, access paths and sports surfaces. It provides a cost effective durable surface which is easy to lay and maintain. Once again we spoke with a lot of people which will undoubtedly lead to many exciting prospects on Resin Bound and Bonded projects to follow up on. Additionally we will be sending out samples of our Goldpath to all the people who enquired about it.

It was a great day for our sales team at the two events, both in firming up existing relationships with our customers and creating some new ones!

Grantex Surfacing were at the RSMAs’ Roadmarking Live Show this week on the 11th and 12th and thoroughly enjoyed catching up with some familiar faces.

We were there introducing two new Anti Skid products to our already extensive range, the Baltic Blue 1-3mm and a new size of the CCKC in a 2-5mm. We already supply the CCKC in 4 other sizes and with a PSV of 78 it certainly generated a lot of interest!

We enjoyed attending several of the seminars and particularly enjoyed the speech from Andrew Jones the MP titled ‘What good looks like from a Government perspective’ which got quite heated at the end, and the following talk from Terry Morgan the Chairman on ‘What good looks like – Skills for an expanding Industry.

A lot of laughs were had over the two days, especially while watching the after dinner comedian! We would like to thank everyone who came to the stand to speak with us, and we hope to see you again next year.

Long Rake Spar had a fantastic time at the NBG Conference this week. We were there from the 3rd to the 5th enjoying both the day and evening activities.

We had a productive 3 days at the conference, many orders were placed and we made some great contacts. A huge effort had been made to entertain us in the evenings which was very much appreciated.

The first night was the welcome dinner which had a F1 themed event and saw the members of our Sales Team getting fully involved with the racing car games. Unfortunately our Area Sales manager Chris Bourne couldn’t quite get the top spot, coming in second on the leader board whilst our Sales Director Richard Maughan managed to break his console! The second night involved a talk from guest speaker and ex Welsh rugby player Jonathan Davies that was highly entertaining and we really enjoyed chatting with him afterwards. The final night was the awards ceremony and we would like to congratulate all of the winners.

A huge thank everyone who stopped by the stand to speak with us and we look forward to following up on all the orders placed.

Long Rake Spar were delighted to be exhibiting with Addagrip at Grand Designs Live at the NEC in Birmingham from the 8th to 11th October.

The 4 days we spent at the show were fantastic and very eventful as it saw a record number of people attend.

We brought with us some of our leading decorative aggregates, including our Rainbow Cobbles, Onyx Gravel, and numerous products from our Grantex range that are put into resin bonded and resin bound systems.

With flooding affecting many commercial buildings and residential homes in recent years, water management and flood prevention have become increasingly important to customers when deciding on surfacing. Resin Bound surfaces like some of those showcased on our stand at Grand Designs are SuDS compliant and allow rapid drainage of water in order to prevent surface saturation.

Both fine and larger grades of aggregates from our Grantex range can be used in bound systems, enabling contractors to offer a surface that is of similar value for money as traditional non-permeable paving and has the added benefit of offering distinct colouring and choice for customers. Similarly, our range can be used in any bonded system to create a more rustic textured finish that’s hard wearing and low maintenance.

We thought the show was a great success, members of our expert sales team were kept busy answering lots of questions and assisting contractors, merchants, landscapers and specifiers with general enquiries.

We are looking forward to attending again next year and would like to say thank you to everyone who popped in to say hello.