Guinness Book of World Records record holder R K Marble Private Limited will promote its Wonder Marble – which is described as the world’s first branded natural coloured marble – at the Big 5 show.

The Indian firm says it has an entry in the record book as the largest marble mining company in the world.
Incorporated in May 1989, R K Marble registered a 36 per cent growth over the previous year, according to Sunil Kumar Batta, director of the company.
The company intends to take its sales even further through exports and has set a target of doubling its revenue from its overseas market over the next five years.
 “As of now, exports contribute about three to five per cent of the group’s marble sales. However, we have set ourselves a target of achieving 10 per cent of our revenue through exports over the next five years,” Batta points out.
In a bid to tap the vast opportunities in the Middle East and Africa as well as the rest of the world, the company has recently established a marketing office in Dubai.
“We have devised aggressive marketing policies and we intend to tap as many opportunities across the globe as possible,” he adds. “We are also extensively participating in several exhibitions all over India and in US, China and the Middle East to help the market appreciate the look and feel of the Wonder Marble as well as our other products.”
From its corporate headquarters at Ajmer, Rajasthan and the new marketing office in Dubai, the company is aiming to market its branded coloured marble which is available in four colours – milky opal, pink pearl, garnet rush and jasper jazz – and in patterns and designs that are exotic. The marble also has striking physical properties such as extraordinary hardness, low porosity, long-lasting lustre and stain resistance, which makes it a much-sought-after product by the architects, interior designers and home, shop aspirants alike, says Batta.
Being possibly the first company to have taken on the task of branding a natural product, R K Marble has hired the services of Rediffusion DYR to promote Wonder Marble.
“Business is growing at the rate of 35 per cent in monetary terms,” he points out. “Our production has seen massive growth over recent years, with production of marble blocks equivalent to 375,000 sq ft of marble slabs per day (1.36 million tonnes of marble blocks per annum).”
“Our main market, by far, is India with northern India accounting for a large volume of our processed marble sales. The company also routinely exports to the Gulf, the Far East, Europe and the US and is negotiating with various Chinese buyers.
The company’s core activity is mining of marble, processing it into slabs and tiles and polishing it. Currently, the raw materials are procured from the group’s mines in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, India.
R K Marble uses the latest world-class machinery, which significantly speeds up its production process and ensures the best of quality. These include excavators, loaders, dozers, dumpers (tippers), belt saw etc, from companies like Caterpillar of the US, Hitachi and Komatsu of Japan, Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) of Sweden, Benetti of Italy. Internationally, one of the best18 headline polishing machines from Breton of Italy is used to give a mirror polish to Wonder Marble.
“R K Marble has a sawing capacity of 1.4 million cu ft of marble blocks and has invested around $10 million in 14 gang saws and as well as in a state-of-the-art polishing and resin plant from Italy. The company is investing heavily in expansion to produce the best quality marble to meet the ever-increasing requirements of the international market,” he adds.
The company is also looking for new mining areas to increase its production capabilities in order to meet the requirements of booming construction markets in India, Middle East and other parts of the world.
In the Indian market, the company’s products are marketed through a network of associate traders all over India. R K Marble is certified by the BVQI for its systems and processes in mining and has been recently awarded with the 9001:2000 certification. It has also been awarded with the IS0 14001 for environmental awareness.
“We are known to have the best HR (human resources) policies in the trade and currently the group has a total of 1,982 employees including mines excavation, technical, supervisory administrative sales staff etc.,” he concludes.