Cut-to-Size Quartz
Report from India: Cut-to-Size Quartz from India
Adding value to a product with an increased demand, Divine Surfaces enters the cut-to-size quartz market
Since its inception in 2020, Divine Surfaces has filled the void in cut-to-size and projects division in the engineered stone space. Mudit Agarwal, the director of the company, has been in the stone business since 2003 manufacturing granite and marble slabs, exporting them to North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Due to the increase in demand for engineered quartz surfaces in the United States, as well as other countries, most of the granite manufacturers in India were diversifying to engineered quartz. “Seeing the mad rush, we decided to do something different instead of just the slab business which would soon have too much supply and instead decided to enter the value addition segment,” said Agarwal. “Now the challenge was getting good quality slabs for projects to be able to reduce turnaround time and supply the best materials. So a engineered quartz production unit along with 4-axis bridge cutters, 5-axis CNC and 5-axis waterjet was setup to meet the requirements of commercial and residential projects around the globe. Unlike other plants that use rejects to do cut-to-size projects, we produce premium slabs exclusively for projects ensuring consistency and quality, helping with faster turnaround times.” Divine Surfaces is India’s first and only engineered stone manufacturing company exclusively for cut-to-size projects and prefabs.
Divine Surfaces has a fully automatic pressing line with mold technology. This enables them to reduce defects in the manufacturing process. All of their slabs are then calibrated on both sides followed by polishing on their fully automatic machine using Italian abrasives. Divine Surfaces also prides itself on being eco-friendly. They use an Italian water treatment plant to process slurry generated in calibration, polishing and fabrication sections. Their plant runs on recycled water and all the collected waste cakes from the water treatment plant is used by neighboring brick manufacturing companies. All paper waste generated is sold to recycling plants for making recycled paper. Divine Surfaces is also in the process of doing work with mosaic industries in the area to convert fabrication waste into beautiful mosaics. “Reducing the carbon footprint on the planet and playing our part in it is big on our agenda,” said Agarwal.
Divine Surfaces machines were dispatched to the company in March 2020, during India’s first COVID-19 lockdown. At that time all construction activities came to a halt. “When we did resume work after more than three months, containers were lying at various ports incurring demurrage expenses,” said Agarwal. “On the other hand, our civil infrastructure wasn’t ready with the foundations due to labor not being available. Most labor had migrated to the villages. Due to COVID, phase one of our civil and installation period got extended by at least six months. Again, when we were ready to start trials and commercial productions, lockdown phase two hit us, resulting in a massive shortage of labor. COVID has hit us very badly but we are confident that we will be able to overcome all hurdles and come out stronger.”
The company's goal moving forward is to increase production and reduce turnaround time. “We are planning to add multiple machines in the fabrication section, as well as increase shed area for storage and inspection purposes,” said Agarwal. “We are an exclusive cut-to-size projects/prefabs company with a team that has deep understanding of this segment and can cater to all project needs at the shortest turnaround time.”
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Jason Kamery is the Managing Editor and Group Digital Editor of Stone World. With more than a decade of experience covering the stone and countertop industry, he has conducted hundreds of interviews with fabricators, manufacturers, and industry leaders, and hosts the Stone World. podcast. He reports from events worldwide, including TISE, Coverings, and Marmomac, and his coverage extends to worker safety and silicosis, trade policy and tariffs, and fabrication technology. Kamery has also served as a speaker and panel moderator at The International Surface Event (TISE). He graduated from Purdue University with a B.A. in Mass Communication.
email: kameryj@bnpmedia.com | office: (248) 833-7356
