Hyundai L&C is tightening its grip on the North American engineered stone market. After starting up its ‘Hanex’ plant in Texas last year, the company is now channeling all its efforts into expanding its base of new customers, including participating in a series of kitchen and bath trade shows across North America.

Hyundai L&C, a comprehensive building-materials company under the Hyundai Department Store Group, announced that it participated in ‘KBIS (The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show) 2020,’ held over three days from January 21 in Las Vegas, USA. KBIS is North America’s largest kitchen and bath trade show, drawing some 600 companies from around the world. Hyundai L&C has now taken part 11 times in total, including six consecutive years since 2015.

At this year’s show, Hyundai L&C displayed a total of some 140 products, including about 60 Kanstone products—such as the new premium line ‘EVOKE’ collection of ‘Kanstone (export name Hanstone),’ an engineered stone made with 99%-purity quartz, and the Kanstone ‘Soft Ivory’ and ‘Wild Brown’ products featuring a Travertine Look—as well as about 80 Hanex products, including the ‘Long-vein’ series of Hanex, an MMA (methyl methacrylate)-based solid surface material.

In particular, Kanstone’s new premium line, the EVOKE collection, was presented in three varieties: ‘Awaken,’ ‘Renew,’ and ‘Embrace.’ These products are distinguished by their intricate designs—indistinguishable from natural marble to the naked eye—achieved using robotic equipment from the Italian stone-processing equipment maker Breton, which was introduced on the second production line at the Canadian Kanstone plant (Ontario).

In addition, the two ‘Travertine Look’ products (Soft Ivory and Wild Brown) apply the natural striated design of geological strata, while the Hanex ‘Long-vein’ series elegantly reproduces the curved patterns of natural marble through a proprietary process at Hyundai L&C’s Sejong plant.

Hyundai L&C is using its participation in this year’s KBIS as a springboard to expand its share of the North American engineered stone market. Its strategy is to actively secure new customers by conducting sales activities targeting the local companies attending the show. Notably, Hyundai L&C CEO Yoo Jeong-seok also stepped up sales efforts during the show, holding direct meetings with major North American building-materials companies such as Floform.

A Hyundai L&C official said, “Through our participation in this show, we plan to expand our current base of some 3,000 customers in North America to more than 3,500.” Through this, the company aims to raise its North American sales this year to the 200 billion won range—up 25% from last year’s 160 billion won.

Hyundai L&C also plans to actively boost its brand awareness in the North American market through sales activities (project specifications) targeting large institutions such as local general hospitals.