Fox Marble Holdings (LON:FOX), the AIM listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region has announced that it is has signed its first contract for the processing of third party blocks, which represents an additional revenue stream for the Company.
Chris Gilbert, CEO, commented “This new revenue stream will allow Fox Marble to utilise more of its factory capacity and increase operating efficiency, whilst still processing its own marble for sale globally as well as in the wider Balkan market. We look forward to our ongoing partnership with Inter Stone LLC. I look forward to updating the market in the New Year on our strategy and future growth plans.”
Fox Marble now has three principal sources of revenue from three separate activities, those of block sales from its Prilep quarry in North Macedonia; sale of processed material from blocks of its own material quarried in Kosovo and Macedonia and block processing for third parties.
Under this new third-party agreement, Fox Marble will process stone on behalf of Inter Stone LLC at the Company’s factory at Lipjan in Kosovo. The contract is for twelve months and it is expected that Fox Marble will continue to process blocks of material each month. The blocks due to be processed within the first monthly batch of material have been delivered to the factory site and production has begun. The first order under this contract, expected to be fulfilled in December 2019, will generate around €100k in revenues for the Company. The level of production will be up to a maximum of 1,000 tons per month, depending on the capacity that Fox Marble requires for its production of its own material.
This arrangement will allow Fox Marble to expand capacity at the factory, driving performance improvements, whilst maximising operating efficiencies.
This optimisation performance and efficiency comes in part from the adoption of a new flexible multi-shift system and is part of an overall factory improvement programme achieved since the recent appointments of Francisco Espinosa (COO and Head of Sales) and Secundino Costas da Villa (Technical Factory Manager),who bring with them a wealth of natural stone experience.
Working capital continues to be carefully managed as we implement our plans for growth.