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On 16th May last, FEBENAT was officially christened: the result of a number of months of searching and pondering between colleagues in the world of natural stone distribution.
Eventually, 7 important Belgian importers and dealers in natural stone products came together to stand behind the charter and the objectives of FEBENAT; in alphabetical order: BELTRAMI, BMB, MERBES-SPRIMONT, STONE, STONE WEST, TUYTTELAERS and WESTVLAAMS TEGELHUIS.
These companies play a leading role in the Belgian natural stone market and, with the creation of this federation, aim in particular to achieve the following objectives:
- To establish common standards, concerning the quality, sizes, installation and maintenance of natural stone.
- To establish the way in which the intrinsic quality, the aesthetic aspects and the processing of natural stone will be assessed, taking into account existing and future technical standards.
- To stipulate an ethical business code for distributors involved in the sale of natural stone.
- To provide correct and reliable information to both professionals and to the public.
- To support collective professional interests and to act as a general spokesman and consultative body on behalf of affiliated members, including in relationships with the authorities, with other professional groups, consumer organisations, etc.
Technical leaflets
The first concrete action of FEBENAT is the formulation of technical leaflets for the most used natural stone types in Belgium. A technical working group has put in a great deal of work on the uniformity of a standard leaflet that will contain reliable information concerning origin, nomenclature, technical characteristics, installation and maintenance guidelines. These technical leaflets will be distributed by all members to their clients and architects, by the beginning of next year at the latest. You can already request the new technical leaflets from BELTRAMI by completing the attached fax formula.
WTCB
The second action point is the participation of FEBENAT in the WTCB technical working group, 'natural stone', concerning the implementation of TV 205, a technical information service which describes the appearance and characteristics of the most used natural stone types in Belgium. This working group has already met a number of times at the test facility of the WTCB in Limelette. The main outline of the new TV 205 is already committed to paper and the inclusion of FEBENAT was very positively received by the working group. The fact that the choice was made to subject the best selling natural stones to a new and uniform examination of technical characteristics, raises the concern that it is still impossible to predict when the new TV 205 will be published. We will keep you up-to-date via our Newsletter !!!
Finally: FEBENAT can be contacted direct at the following address : FEBENAT vzw, Lombardstraat 34-42, 1000 BRUSSELS. For the first working year, Rinaldo Castelli was elected chairman, with Dany Tuyttelaers as deputy chairman and Hugo Meganck as secretary. For BELTRAMI, both Herwig and Stefaan Callewier sit on the general council of FEBENAT. Pascal Rommel represents BELTRAMI in the technical working group. Herwig Callewier is one of the FEBENAT members that sits on the WTCB working group 'natural stone'.
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