Leiths

At Montrose Precast, we are always striving to diversify and create new products. With a staff members recent loss of a family pet, we had the idea to make pet memorial stones.

Over the past few months, the finishers at Montrose have experimented with different drafts and designs. We had meetings with our sister company, Fyfe Glenrock, who suggested we look into ceramic plates similar to that used for their gravestones. We ordered samples and made a few stones to suit, however, the quality of the pictures provided were easily chipped, so, whilst we were happy with the samples produced, we continued developing ideas.

Fyfe Glenrock then suggested an artist who engraves pet portraits on to granite. This is carried out entirely freehand, a dying art as people now print-engrave directly onto the granite. Because this is done freehand, the artist can really capture the character of the animal compared to the mass-produced printed engravings.

Following very productive meetings, we have now created a line of samples in a range of ten colours. These have been delivered to multiple pet crematoriums in the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire areas, along with a block of colour samples for their customers to choose from. We can now offer a variety of shapes, colours, and additions such as lettering or paw prints.

So far customers who have seen the samples have been very enthusiastic about the concept. This is the perfect combination of art and design. We are starting with the promotion of ‘The Esk’ (Pictured).

The original idea started as a pet memorial, however, there is plenty of scope to grow and expand the range going forward, to include name plates and house numbers, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.