About Us BEST is a 100% South Australian family owned business. Established in 1993, BEST is now a market leader in the supply of flooring products in Australia. Every product that BEST sells is manufactured at a 40,000m2 manufacturing facility at Wingfield in South Australia. From the outset, BEST’s charter has been to provide world-class products. BEST has never offered the same old products as everyone else. Instead, we started with a clean slate. Travelling the world for inspiration. Taking the best European style. Adding our own ingenuity. Leading the way with constant innovation. Creating pavers and tiles in new styles, new sizes, new colours and new finishes. So now Australian home designers and homemakers can buy a home grown product every bit as stylish and precise as anything from Europe. But crafted in Australia to stand up to our conditions and lifestyle. Our state-of-the-art manufacturing plants are purpose built in Europe and the U.S.A. BEST regularly travels the world in order to adopt production practices and technology that can be deemed “world best practice”. Cutting edge technology and protection of the environment go hand in hand. BEST is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of its entire product range through the use of modern work practices, major recycling and energy saving programmes. But it is not just about machines. It’s about people. Our craftsmen have an eye for detail and a passion for quality. They produce an array of products which is as extensive as it is impressive. They turn out quality traditional masonry pavers and blocks, retaining wall systems, exquisite large format pavers, terrazzo tiles to match the most expensive imports and quality granite pavers and tiles all made from Australian stone. BEST has a product to suit any budget. At BEST, we never rest. Technology never stands still so neither do we. It’s fashionable right now for manufacturers to claim the environmental kudos for changing their production methods to something sustainable. Customers demand it now. That wasn’t the case a decade ago, however, when BEST made the decision to build a better plant in order to build better products. It’s been a massive investment in technology. But better than paying the price ecologically. The nature of pavers One of the most important points to make about how BEST makes products is that it is, after all, a natural process using natural ingredients. So whilst the technology has changed radically, the basic methods of production we use would not be unrecognisable to ancient paver makers. Granite, marble and limestone pavers are, of course, just natural stone that’s precisely cut and exquisitely finished. But every component that goes into the manufacture of our composite pavers is natural too. There are no chemicals used in the process. Unlike most manufacturers, that means our site is free of contaminants. It also makes pavers a guilt-free purchase and a worthy addition to any green home. Water saving Manufacturing pavers does require a lot of water. And that’s a real problem in Australia, the driest habitable continent on Earth. So in 1999, we imported our first water-recycling plant from Europe. In 2008, we added a second one. On those rare occasions when it rains, every precious drop is collected from our factory roofs and introduced to a closed-loop system that allows us to use the same water over and over again. This has reduced our water consumption by an astonishing 5,000 litres per day. Buy Locally You have the power to fight carbon emissions everytime you go shopping. Case in point: if you choose pavers and hardflooring made right here in Australia by BEST rather than some from overseas, you’ll save all the emissions created transporting them. (To get 100 square metres of pavers from China to Australia will take 34 trees 12 months to remove the CO2.)* So buy local and act global. Gas-free curing Even during the kiln-drying process, BEST has taken every step to ensure resources are used efficiently and responsibly. Our products are not kiln fired and no heat energy is required. Instead as our products are dried, they undergo a mist-curing process. What this means is that at computer-controlled intervals, they are subjected to fine sprays of water, all of which comes from our recycling plant. Not only does this cure our range to ensure a strong, quality product that will endure in situ; it also ensures the drying process is successful with less wasteful rejects. Unlike other manufacturers, no natural gas is used in this stage. Zero waste Our manufacturing process produces no waste. If a product is produced that we deem unsaleable, it is simply crushed and reprocessed for use in future manufacture. So we’ve all but eliminated the need to send anything to landfill. Environmental products In this way, every product that comes from BEST is made in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. But some products go on to do even more for the environments in which they’re used. For example, we’ve developed a new, permeable product, called the Bio Paver. Extensively tested and verified by the University of South Australia, Bio Pavers allow water to seep through them into the ground below, thereby reducing the amount of runoff and stormwater that pollutes our coastal waters. *Based on an average 400 x 400 x 60mm paver. Each paver 25kg.