MCL speaks to a woman who's stone-importing company turns peoples dreams into reality.

The saying 'home is where the heart is' has never been truer than today.

From country mansions and coastal cottages to city apartments and suburban semis, homeowners are passionate about investing in lifestyle. And often that involves housing the very latest technology within a setting that owes its inspiration to the Greeks and Romans!

The chic interiors and exteriors pictured in today's glossy magazines invariably feature natural materials which not only look good but last a lifetime.

This 'back-to-the-future' idyll is good news for one Monmouth-based company which imports stone from all over the world.

Alma Small started out selling a single consignment of slate imported from America on behalf of a business contact of her husband's.

Fifteen years on her company Mandarin employs more than 40 people, has headquarters in Monmouth and outlets in Bath, Cheltenham and Cardiff and sells 100 different varieties of stone from as far afield as Peru, Italy, India and China.

Alma says the interest in natural stone started with kitchens, extended to bathrooms and now includes living spaces and exteriors. "People are taking more interest in their homes. They'll invest in a new conservatory or a designer kitchen rather than move house. Lifestyle has become a huge issue," she said. "No-one wants the synthetics of the 60s, 70s and 80s. They want a kitchen with a flagstone floor that looks 100 years old, a terrace with antique terracotta tiles... "People travel further afield too and pick up ideas. They'll stay in a hotel which has a beautiful marble in the lounge or some unusual tiles in the bathroom and be inspired to use something similar at home."

Alma has travelled the world selecting stone for her business and still feels a buzz of excitement when a new variety arrives on a container ship. "I've just found a lovely yellow limestone in Turkey that looks like Cotswold stone. "I've always been interested in natural history and had a flair for interior design and colour. I've also had a lot of help from my second cousin who's a geology lecturer."

Like many good business ideas, however, it all came about by chance. "I was planning to return to teaching part-time when the children were old enough. But one day a business associate of my husband's in Weston showed me a warehouse full of natural imported lilac slate that he was desperate to market and sell. I couldn't resist taking up the challenge. "It was difficult to get the business off the ground because, in those days, the interest was all in quarry tiles and ceramics. But I started contacting architects and specifiers to extol the virtues of natural materials and gradually made progress."

Alma hit on the name 'Mandarin' one evening when she was thinking about the ducks the family had owned. "Mandarins are colourful and there was also the association with China, which by then was the main source of our slate."

Nowadays the company is a family affair. Alma's husband Stephen is a director of the company and oversees all Mandarin's warehouse activities. Daughter Louisa, 27, a qualified lawyer, has become head of marketing while her younger sister Ella, 23, who has a degree in French and Spanish, is helping to market the business in Europe.

The youngest member of the family, Sam, who's studying fine art at Cardiff University, is keeping his options open! "In the early days we were predominantly selling slate from China, India and South Africa. We gradually expanded into selling terracotta, limestone, sandstone, travertine and marble and we're currently looking at adding granite to the range. "At the moment we have 40 staff, most them based in our head office in Monmouth. "By the late 90s the market was getting very competitive so rather than confine ourselves to the wholesale trade we decided to open a shop in Bath, which became our flagship. "Five years later we opened another premises off Newport Road in Cardiff. Then an opportunity came up in Cheltenham and we opened a showroom there. We're now looking for other venues. We're in the process of setting up a showroom in Bordeaux, for example, and we've also acquired additional warehousing in Monmouth to contain our ever-expanding stock. "Initially the interest was all in kitchens and conservatories but at the moment half our sales are bathroom tiles. People like the clean, fresh look. They'll install a whole bathroom in stone - and often they'll have a bathroom attached to each bedroom. "There is also a market now for stone floors in living areas, which works very well with under-floor heating."

Under-floor heating dates back to Roman times but Alma reckons it's still the best because it's clean and particularly appropriate for people who suffer from allergies. "Although stone lasts a lifetime and doesn't date there's still a fashion element in the business. Currently customers are going for the two extremes of dark and light. But I think colours and polished surfaces are becoming more popular. Lime green and pink are making a comeback after 40 years! "We're selling between 500 and 700 pallets of stone every week. Travertine from Turkey is currently the biggest seller because it's light, comparatively cheap and easy on the eye. But slate and marble have always been popular. "In China raw slabs of slate are transported hundreds of miles from the quarries to the factories. It began as a farming type of pastime there. If there was nothing to do on the land farmers would simply hack out some sheets of slate and sell them at the nearest factory! "The main source of green marble is India but the bulk of it is shipped off to factories in Italy and Spain to be fabricated."

Mandarin sells everything from honed, riven, antique and polished stone to mosaic tiles and stone bathware.

The stock is shipped in containers to UK ports like Felixstowe and Bristol from China, Peru, Brazil, Turkey, India, China, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy.

"Our stone has been used in the interior design of a lot of commercial premises like hotels and shops. It was recently used for a section at Heathrow Airport."

Alma expects the business to keep on growing. "We're currently expanding into the exterior stone market because 'lifestyle' is spreading outside," she explained.

For more information log onto www.mandarinstone.com