Movie: Caesarstone CEO Yos Shiran reveals how the company develops and manufactures new countertop products in this exclusive video Dezeen produced for the quartz surface brand.
Founded in 1987, Caesarstone is an international manufacturer of quartz surfaces. The company produces hard-wearing, non-porous kitchen countertops by combining powdered quartz mineral with a polymer binder.
"Caesarstone is 90 per cent natural quartz and 10 per cent polymer," Shiran explains in the movie. "The combination allows us to create maybe the best surface you can have for kitchens – heat resistant, stain resistant, with a very low total cost of ownership."
The company produces countertop slabs by compressing the raw materials under extremely high pressure, curing the slabs in a kiln and then polishing them.
By adding pigments and other additives to the mixture, Caesarstone can produce a wide range of different finishes, many of which – such as the brand's Supernatural range – recreate the look of natural stone.
"The Caesarstone product range includes hundreds of different patterns and colours," Shiran says.
"It varies from monochromatic looks, to looks that are inspired by marble or different types of granites."
Caesarstone chief designer Mor Krisher says that demand for products that look like natural stone is increasing all the time. However, some Caesarstone products look like stone that can't actually be found in nature.
"We take several qualities from different natural stones that we like and combine them into one design," Krisher explains.
"We can create something which is natural but doesn't exist in nature. We can give people something that they can't find anywhere else."
Caesarstone is currently able to produce around three million square metres of quartz surface a year, which it ships all over the world.
Shiran believes the company's success is partly due to the increasing importance of the kitchen in people's homes.
"The kitchen went from a neglected part of the house to be the centre of the house surrounded by expensive apparatus," he explains. "And still, the most important tool is the kitchen countertop."
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"We are becoming trendsetters and this is of course very important to us. We will work to ensure this power of Caesarstone will continue to grow."
This movie was filmed by Dezeen in Israel for Caesarstone. Photographs and additional footage are courtesy of Caesarstone.