Compac vs Silestone

Compac vs Silestone. Many of my readers have reached my blog looking for an answer to Compac vs Silestone. I figure many of you will be confronted with the choice Compac Countertops or Silestone Countertops. One thing for sure they are both Spanish companies and 2 of the biggest in the engineered stone sector.
 Things Compac and Silestone have in common?

• Compac and Silestone both use the same technology

The technology that both Compac and Silestone use are Italian know how. In MHO the one that has best results in this business. Although the main technology is similar they tend to differentiate themselves in product R&D. Which I figure Compac is slightly ahead at the moment.

• Compac and Silestone are Spanish owned companies

 Although Compac has it's quartz manufacturing plant in Portugal, due to exclusive rights of the Italian technology. Back in the 90s, Silestone went through a very tough and devastating period, they bought a few production lines and the product was not having such a great acceptance by the market. They negotiated with the Italians a exclusive rights to the Spanish market, basically protecting them from their direct competitors Compac of installing another quartz plant in the Spanish market. So, Compac installed their production plant in Portugal, which is a pain in terms of Logistics, but has proven to be a profitable project.
Compac has it's main headquarters near Valencia in a town called Gandia, which is where their engineered marble plant is located.
Silestone is manufactured at Macael, a town close to Almeria, south of Spain. Home of the Cosentino Group, one of the biggest in Spain.

• Silestone and Compac are both big marketing investors

Silestone was the pioneer, with the advertisement during the Super Bowl a few years ago, really brought them into the spotlight. Never before had anyone in the stone business been so aggressive with marketing and publicity. They've become leaders in this domain. After that they've sponsored other important VIP, namely Fernando Alonso the F1 racer, and other famous chefs.
Compac is a follower, although they've been picking up with the marketing and publicity, they've also sponsored several VIP, being Antonio Banderas one of them. Both Silestone and Compac have been on top of the industry at this level.

• Compac and Silestone have similar expansion strategies

Although Silestone has a wider International network, they both have used the warehousing strategy.

Things that differentiate Compac from Silestone?

• Core business focus

Silestone is more focused than Compac, they only deal with quartz engineered stone, therefore they have 100% of their efforts concentrated in this product line. While Compac has two manufacturing units the quartz engineered stone and the marble engineered stone. They have to concentrate in two different types of products at all levels, from investment to marketing. It's been a difficult task, as they tend to centralize both strategies, which some how slows things down.

• Silestone is the biggest

Yes Silestone is bigger than Compac, they have almost triple the production lines in quartz, and Compacs engineered marble company is having problems in selling their production capacity at the moment.

• Silestone was a bigger sales network

True, Silestone has obtained Worldwide recognition, while Compac has been focusing specifically in certain markets, Compacs main markets are Spain, Portugal and United Kingdom.

• Silestone has more colours available

True Silestone has more engineered quartz colours available. Although if you consider the marble based material, then Compac will be ahead, but in quartz Silestone has more than 50 standard colours available.

• Pure White

For those who have not been aware, Silestones Blanco Zeus was for a few years an objective for many engineered quartz companies. Not until recently did Compac produce on it's own a pure white colour comparable to Silestones Blanco Zeus. Inclusively, Compac in the past was buying from other producers, before they actually dominated technically the pure white production.

• Quality

Between both Compac and Silestone, I would say you'd get a better quality product from Compac, they are ahead in polishing and they've brought some very innovative products to the market lately. The raw materials in one and another are more or less similar.

• Price

Silestones price strategy has placed them at a higher level than Compac. Compacs price list is normally slightly cheaper than Silestone, but that's strategy, Compac is a follower in price list emission.

• Guarantee

Silestone innovated in the 10 years warranty a few years back, this helped them overcome the doubts the consumers had regarding the product. Now they give out lifetime warranty, so does Compac. Although if you have a problem Silestone will be a quick solver, they cherish their market image and an unsatisfied client is something they avoid at all costs.