2018 Round Up
Post date: 20 Dec, 2018
With 2019 fast approaching we take a look back to what we have been up to this year.
Sponsorships
This year CED Stone Group are proud to have sponsored a variety of industry events. We were headline sponsors of The SGD Awards, Pro Landscaper Business Awards and Futurescape at Sandown Park Racecourse, awards partner at the APL Awards, and once again we sponsored The International Award category at the BALI Awards.
We sponsored the Taking Care of Business Seminar by Alan Sargent and the Landscape Institute President’s Reception, and for something a bit different we sponsored a mini-series of RHS Chelsea episodes of The SodShow. We realised that horticulturist Peter Donegan’s SodShow pretty much embodies everything that we value as a company and so were delighted to support this.
It has been an absolute pleasure to have our name associated with so many great industry events.
Exhibitions
Our Nationwide Depot teams attended many exhibitions this year across the country. The NSBRC, Self Build Live, Futurescape, Gardening Scotland, The Surface Design Show, Coles Nurseries Open Day and Pro Landscaper Live to name but a few. We always enjoy attending exhibitions, they provide us with an ideal way to showcase our products, share our expertise, and we get to catch up with old friends and make new ones.
Big Changes
2018 was a big year for CED. We turned 40 and launched our fresh new brand!
We marked our 40th year anniversary with the unveiling of our completely new branding. The Managing Director Giles Heap explained ‘A lot of things can change in 40 years, and over time we’ve grown and evolved in many ways; so we hope that this new and updated branding will help to reinforce how important our values are.’
Previously we have been known as CED Ltd, but now we are moving forward as CED Stone Group. The two distinct parts of our business, CED Stone Commercial and CED Stone Landscape, have been given their own identities; ensuring that we can communicate effectively with our clients who all have very different needs.
Our rebranding wasn’t the only interesting development this year. We were also delighted to announce that our CED Stone Commercial division expanded into overseas territories with our newly established CED Stone North America Inc.
Based in Montreal in Canada, CED North America will be able to service all major cities across Canada and the United States with an initial primary focus on Quebec, Ontario and New York.
Show Gardens
It’s normally a busy time for us when the flower shows begin and this year was no exception with the CED Stone Landscape division supplying materials for over 30 different show gardens!
At Gardening Scotland this year our Castlecary Depot got hands on and created a show garden designed by Lynn Hill. The Garden Retreat - A place for living, featuring our Slate Tier Panel cladding, bespoke caithness copes and Imperial Silver Grey Granite paving. We were awarded for our efforts with Best Show Garden!
We helped with ‘The Great Escape’, we moved mountains, and even travelled ‘Through The Roots Of Time’. Our products were seen at Harrogate Flower Show, Ascot Garden Show, Blenheim Palace Flower Show and at RHS Chelsea, Tatton, Cardiff, Chatsworth and Hampton Flower Shows. There are some incredibly talented people within our industry and it is a true pleasure helping to make their designs a reality. We are extremely proud to have been chosen to supply products for each and every one of these fantastic show gardens.
There were some challenges this year;
Finding just the right Slatewood Planks for Briony Doubleday’s The Penumbra proved tricky however our Langley Mill and West Thurrock Depots worked together to make sure Briony received exactly what she was looking for.
We worked hard to source a more suitable material for Alexandra Noble’s Health and Wellbeing Garden when Giles advised her that her original idea of using clay pavers for the tightly curving pathways would not work and suggested porphyry setts as an alternative. Another rather more unusual challenge was working on The RHS Hampton Court educational feature Evolve -
Through The Roots of Time. Giles worked very closely with Dave Green and his
team to make sure that the right materials would be used in the right way, in the correct parts of the garden, as it had to be accurate with the different geological time periods.
At CED Stone Group, we know full well that it can be tricky to find the perfect stone material for a designer’s scheme, but there’s always a solution and with our expert knowledge you can be assured that there is nobody better placed to help you to find it!
‘While we could just let the quality of our products do the talking, we always go the extra mile for our clients so that we’re delivering the very best service.’
Giles Heap
If you are planning on designing a garden for a flower show or event and would like to discuss the possibility of using hard landscaping products from CED Stone Landscape, then please do contact us and we will do our best to support your project.
Click here to view our Show Gardens Gallery. Show gardens aside both our Landscape and Commercial Division have worked on and supplied to some truly amazing projects and some incredible private garden designs this year and it has been a joy seeing our customers progress and completed jobs. 
Education
Over the course of the year we have hosted and attended several events aiming to educate, inform and inspire. Our experts attended hard landscaping training days at both Writtle University College and Brinsbury, Chichester College where they delivered presentations and held Q&A sessions for the students. Giles Heap provided talks at The Landscape Event, The Surface Design Show and Pro Landscaper Live and ’ Michael Heap provided a CPD for DCE Meet The Experts Conference.
In-house at our London East - West Thurrock Depot we had visits from Hadlow College and Writtle College students and our resident geologists gave The Essex Rock and Mineral Society the grand tour. Our Scotland - Castlecary Depot welcomed students from SRUC Oatridge Campus and our North West - Wirral Depot hosted a SGD Cluster Group meeting.
If you are interested in arranging a visit to any of our nationwide Depots in 2019 or would like one of our experts to come to you please get in touch. It’s our goal to inspire others and share our passion for natural stone, and we know that starts with education.
And that’s a wrap.
In warm appreciation we would like to wish all our customers, suppliers and industry partners a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with good health, happiness, and spectacular success.
