10 QUESTIONS WITH... PETER VANN, DIRECTOR OF CERAMIQUE INTERNATIONALE 10 QUESTIONS WITH…


Each issue we ask an industry professional the Tomorrow’s Tile & Stone 10 Questions. This time, we chatted to Peter Vann, Director of Ceramique Internationale.


Q1


WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?


I’ve been in the home improvement sector for all of my career really. I started off as a telephone sales clerk at Shires Bathrooms in Guiseley, Leeds, in the mid-1970s and spent five years there, latterly as a sales rep in London.


Q2


HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE TILE/


STONE INDUSTRY? I worked for The Spring Ram Corporation PLC, a Yorkshire-based home improvements manufacturing group, for 14 years and the Maggie Thatcher decade really helped them to grow. They built a tile factory in Bradford where I became the Marketing Director in the early ‘90s. In 1994, my old school friend, Cameron Fraser, approached me to join Ceramique Internationale as his partner – and the rest is history.


Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6


WHO, IN ANY OTHER INDUSTRY, DO YOU


MOST ADMIRE? Richard Branson – mainly because he is a chancer who has achieved amazing things. He is a marmite character, but you can’t fault him for the gambles he has taken.


IF MONEY WAS NO OBJECT, WHAT CAR


WOULD YOU BUY? I am a bit of a petrolhead so just one car wouldn’t be sufficient. Then there’s motorcycles too, so this would be a very long list!


IF YOU COULD INVENT ONE


PRODUCT TO MAKE YOUR JOB


EASIER, WHAT WOULD IT BE? A Star Trek Transporter – it would speed up everything we do, and I’d love to be able to just materialise in front of a customer!


WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU


WERE GROWING UP? An obligatory weekly TV viewing for me was The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, a documentary about marine diversity.


— 28 — www.tomorrowstileandstone.co.uk Q8 Q9


So, despite my complete lack of academic science skills, this was what I actually wanted to do as a career.


Q7


WHAT DO YOU DO TO UNWIND?


I play Padel tennis - which I discovered in 2002 whilst on holiday in Spain. I quickly found myself hooked. It is great fun, easy to play but difficult to master. My passion for this sport led to me introducing the first Padel facility into the UK in 2011 at my club in Huddersfield, and then forming the UK governing body to develop the sport here.


IF YOU COULD HOST A DINNER PARTY WITH


ANY THREE GUESTS, DEAD OR ALIVE, WHO WOULD THEY


BE AND WHY? As a tennis player and fan, John McEnroe- because he says it like it is. As a rock enthusiast, Lemmy - because he also says it like it is and I like his first band Hawkwind. And then Bruce Lee - because his philosophising also says it like it is, but rather more quietly than John and Lemmy!


IF YOU COULD VISIT ANY PLACE IN THE


WORLD, WHERE WOULD YOU


GO AND WHY? Australia, because of the constant beach proximity and the prevailing relaxed attitude.


Q10


REBECCA CHERRINGTON,


FROM LAPICIDA, ASKED: DO YOU THINK 3D PRINTING WILL PLAY A PART IN THE FUTURE


OF THE TILE INDUSTRY? Yes, I do. The ability to model and print 3D-structured feature tiles will speed up the process of development considerably and is therefore an obvious route for manufacturers to look at.


www.tilesandmosaics.co.uk/


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