The gala evening at one of Piazza Bra's more prestigious restaurants was a fitting closure to day one of Marmomacc 2004. For the third year in a row, Edilgraniti, a company that has been operating in the stone industry for over 40 years, presented the Edilgraniti Outstanding Associate Award, which was introduced in 2002. The award recognizes the entire range of business activities that rotate around this market segment and symbolically unite all industry operators who are involved in the quarrying, processing, marketing, and use and development of natural stones, according to Edilgraniti.

This initiative is one of Edilgraniti's favorites, because in addition to strengthening the corporate image, it aims at making all of the natural stone industry operators aware of the importance of extending quarrying use and possible interactions with other industries.

The event was attended by businessmen and journalists from all over the world.

The U.S. yet again proved to be a winner, with the award going to Austin Randall from Granite Imports of Denver, CO. He was honored for his work in implementing major commercial and distribution projects, which played a major role in the market success of Australian natural stones.

At this initiative, Edilgraniti S.r.l. appeared once again keen in developing the natural stone market, where new granites were showcased, including Austral Coffee. Granite Imports stood out in the industry because of its R&D planning and focus on processing methods, aided by state-of-the-art technology capable of supporting special processing and production of granites such as 1 cm-thick calibrated slabs, according to Edilgraniti.