Fox Marble, an AIM-listed company focused on marble quarrying and finishing in Kosovo and the Balkans region, made an operating loss of €2.5m in 2018 - down from €2.9m in the preceding year.
The London, UK-registered company says it has also won a major new contract worth US$2.4m to supply its Alexandrian White marble for the construction of a temple in the United Arab Emirates.
For the year ended 31 December 2018 Fox Marble produced a total of 13,094 tonnes of marble at its Prilep Alpha (Macedonia) and Maleshevë (Kosovo) quarries - up 49% from 8,811 tonnes in 2017).
Revenue for the year was €1.4m (2017 – €1.2m) with further advances of €0.3m for future sales. The company sold 5,059 tonnes of block material in 2018 (2017 – 4,641 tonnes), together and over 7,000 sqm of processed material was sold (2017 – 5,000 sqm).
Fox Marble says it has made a strong start to 2019 with sales to 30 April of €515k (30 April 2018 – €76k), despite the winter shutdown of the quarries which generally results in very slow sales in the first few months of the year.
Production in the four months to 30 April 2019 totalled 5,940 tonnes (2018 2,147 tonnes). The company says the significant increase in production over this period is a reflection of capital investment made in the quarries to date.
Capital investment of €550k has been made in the Prilep Alpha quarry, to drive increased levels of production and to support the delivery of material under the new temple contract.
The company has five quarries under licence (four of which are in operation) and a further five quarries under operating agreements. The quarries hold a combined volume of over 300 million cubic metres of premium quality marble and decorative stone.
The major new order has been placed by the Swaminarayan Hindu religious order who are building a temple in Abu Dhabi on land donated by the UAE Royal family. Fox Marble will provide most of the stone for the interior of the building, with the total value of the contract over the next two years expected to be in the region of US$2.4m. Construction of the temple is to start shortly.
Fox Marble CEO Chris Gilbert commented on the order: “We are privileged to be in partnership with the Swaminarayan religious order who have built over 1000 temples around the world. This temple will be the first such place of worship in the UAE and will be a monument for many generations to come. ”
The company says its long term goal is to expand capacity, and to create a premium marble brand, through which Kosovo and the region is established as a major centre of marble production in the world. The company adds that its focus during 2019 will be to continue to develop its quarries and expand yields, to increase the output of processed material from its factory, to supply quality stone on time to existing customers, to widen its customer base and identify new markets.
