Published at 13:17, Friday, 14 May 2010

A FURNESS quarry owned by Lord Cavendish has created 12 jobs by opening its first ever showroom.

ON SHOW: Lord Cavendish, director Lucy Cavendish, managing director Rob Irwin and Lady Cavendish at the opening of the new Burlington Stone showroom JOE RILEY REF: 50005461B000

Around 100 people were at the Kirkby quarry and headquarters of Burlington Slate yesterday to tour the £500,000 showroom, which was officially opened by Lord Cavendish.

Burlington Slate is the jewel in the crown of the Holker Group of Companies, owned by the Cavendish family.

It has adapted part of its quarry HQ building to develop the swish 130-square-metre showroom.

It contains examples of slate and polished stone from the group’s quarries, including Kirkby and Baycliff, used for interior surfaces including kitchens, living rooms and bathrooms instead of for traditional roofing and building purposes.

It is aimed at attracting visits from architects and interior designers and boosting sales and widening the use of quarry products.

Burlington Slate is recruiting around a dozen workers this year because of increasing business, taking the workforce to 140.

It has already taken some staff on.

Lord Cavendish, who was joined at the opening by Lady Cavendish and their daughter Lucy, who is a director of the company, said: “We are investing in this industry, we are investing in local jobs, we are investing in Cumbria and we are investing in the future.

“That is what we are celebrating today and that is why I take so much pleasure in declaring this showroom open.”

“We have always had the skills here to make products but we have just been rather reluctant to promote it.”

Referring to a restructuring of the Holker group, the owner of Holker Hall and Cartmel Racecourse said: “We have had a bit of revolution in the group and proceeded to have a major cultural change to come into the 21st Century.”

He said quarrying in the area went back to Roman times and added: “We all have total confidence there is something here that is absolutely magic in this hillside in terms of quality and durability, It has always captured the imagination of people locally and, indeed, farther afield.”

Lord Cavendish said he worked in the quarry for a year as a young man “because my father thought I was too thick to go to university”.

When he started, horses still worked in the quarry and every piece of slate was moved by hand.

He said of his group: “We have been running the business for 150 years, sometimes well and sometimes less well, but we have managed to stay here.”

Lord Cavendish called for a return to manufacturing industries in Britain, as opposed to financial services industries.

The manufacturing industry had become unfashionable over the last decade, he said, because of the millions of pounds made from financial services.

“People say you are really a bit of a dinosaur, rubbing around a hillside and making stone,” Lord Cavendish added.

But he said the high quality of the stone from the Burlington quarry meant it won back a £1m order the company had lost from China because the Furness material was so much better than that of its rivals.

Lord Cavendish said customers have included prime ministers Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

Of the change of government and the new Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition, Lord Cavendish said: “I am strangely optimistic, it is such a relief to have a government.

“I just feel that the tasks they face are inevitably daunting and we must expect more pain if we are to turn this corner.

“I really pay tribute to the leadership of both the Liberal and Conservative parties for expressing the will to get on and do it.”

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