What can we say about 2020 that others haven’t already said? A year like no other in our lifetimes.
As we flew into Malta at the end of February to take part in a marathon and raise funds for our charity stem4, coronavirus was starting to creep closer to home – we had our temperatures taken on arrival at the airport, which was an indicator of things to come.
Not long after we arrived back in the UK after raising over £10K for the charity, the country went into lockdown, and business slowed. Like many, we had to furlough staff and change our ways of working. But here at Diespeker we prefer to keep busy – so we decided to run a lockdown terrazzo design competition, which was a great success. We spent time organising areas of the business that needed a little TLC and we were delighted to win our second award with Tomorrow’s Tile & Stone, announced in lockdown. The trophy finally arrived in December!
Then the country started opening up and it seemed that everyone wanted to refurbish their homes! For us, this meant taking on some wonderful residential projects for kitchen countertops and stunning marble tables. At the same time, commercial work picked up and we became busy on all sorts of projects, beautiful, poured floors, restoration of old terrazzo and mosaic, reception desks, tables and bars for restaurants.
And it hasn’t really stopped. Our bespoke team has continued to push the boundaries or possibilities, with curved surfaces and cladding and eradicating joins in flooring, countertops, treads and risers. Our skills with Palladiana have been recognised and we’ve seen a rise in projects using this stunning technique. The choice of aggregate for bespoke terrazzo is growing all the time. We’ve added new luxury lines to our terrazzo and brought in additional marbles from Greece.
There’s lots more besides, including another fundraising marathon in April (closer to home in Southampton this time) but to see what else we’ve been up to, you’ll need to look out for our new magazine, coming soon.
With coronavirus continuing to have a huge impact on all of us, this Christmas will be very different. Even as we post this, more areas will be moving into Tier 4 on Boxing Day.
However, we hope you are able to celebrate with your loved ones, and we wish all our clients, suppliers, team members and their families a merry Christmas and happy new year. Let’s hope 2021 is a good one.
