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What do the Grand Canyon Skywalk, Tesla cars, the Ellis Island Museum in New York City, and the homes of millions of Americans have in common? Their glazing, manufactured by Saint-Gobain. The French group, a global construction materials giant, has been established in North America for five decades. Today he is one of the leaders in individual residences, a market reinvigorated by the pandemic. ” France is certainly Saint-Gobain’s leading market in terms of turnover and staff, but in terms of results, the United States is the leading country », Specifies, not without pride, the general manager of the group, Benoit Bazin, passing through New York.
Saint-Gobain, known to Americans as its subsidiary CertainTeed, employs 15,000 people in the United States and Canada, divided between its headquarters in Malvern, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its R&D center in Northborough near Boston – the company’s second largest after Paris – and its 160 factories in both countries. Factories that have never stopped running during the pandemic, considered “essential”. The leader in the housing sector produces insulation and roofing materials (roofing), cladding (siding), and plasterboard. These activities generate a little more than 5 billion dollars in turnover in the United States, in a country where competition is not lacking, with Owens Corning, Johns Manville, GAF and other large American groups in the sector of the construction.
« The American market today represents 16% of Saint-Gobain’s turnover, I want it to exceed 20% by 2025, aspires Benoit Bazin who knows the United States well having studied there (MIT after Polytechnique and Ponts) and worked during his twenty-three years of career within the company. Since taking the reins of the group last July, the 52-year-old leader has given himself the means. It launched a $ 400 million investment plan over four years to increase the production capacity of four sites in the United States: those of insulation in Athens, Georgia and Chowchilla in California, that of roofing material. also in Georgia, and a plasterboard production site in Arkansas, near an open pit gypsum quarry.
More than 6,000 hires in 2022
This “ big growth investment »Will be accompanied by new hires, specifies Benoit Bazin. More than 6,000 expected next year, including 2,700 in construction. By producing as close as possible to its customers, Saint-Gobain hopes to further reduce, in the midst of soaring energy prices, transport costs and the risks associated with difficulties in the supply and delivery of materials. ” Growing in North America is Saint-Gobain’s priority and it can go quite quickly, he foresees. Organic growth in the US market will remain good and we will add new acquisitions ».
The United States are in fact building with all their might to satisfy the Americans’ renewed appetite for single-family homes. Despite a slight dip recently due to high material costs, especially wood and copper, and a shortage of labor, housing starts stood at 1.52 million last month, up from one million on average over the past ten years. ” After the covid, everyone wants to be at home and have room for telecommuting », Explains Benoit Bazin.
American-style execution efficiency
Go fast, that’s the method of this former ice hockey player. The speed with which he negotiated, two years ago, the takeover of the American plasterboard specialist Continental Building Products – in just two months – surprised everyone. ” I spoke to the boss the first time on October 3 to tell him that we wanted to buy his business and we announced the acquisition on November 12. On the 13th, I visited the three factories with Mark Rayfield (the North American boss of Saint-Gobain, the two men have known each other for twenty years), we saw two-thirds of the employees 48 hours after the acquisition. »Benoit Bazin says he is very attached to the speed and quality of execution shown by the Americans, “We move forward, we do not think about it, we do not ask ourselves fifty questions”.
This American-style management may come as a surprise within the French company, traditionally concerned with smooth transitions. But the efficiency with which Benoit Bazin was able to impose a complete reorganization of the group by country and no longer by global product line, with the appointment of national bosses at their head, gave Saint-Gobain the flexibility and proximity necessary to overcome the health crisis and confirm its shift towards sustainable construction.
Saint-Gobain is still a major consumer of natural gas. But by choosing to source from large wind farms in the Midwest, where the group has many factories, 80% of its electricity is today “green” in the United States – solar included. There are still some traces of a past less green. Saint-Gobain has just signed a $ 34 million financial agreement to compensate residents of a town in Vermont. A case of chemical contamination with PFAO by one of its former Teflon production sites, closed in 2002. A similar transaction has already been concluded in New York State and another is being negotiated in New Hampshire .
Saint-Gobain today aims to be exemplary, aiming for carbon neutrality in 2050 and the world leader in sustainable construction products – 80% of its sales. Back from COP26 in Glasglow, Benoit Bazin is pleased to see the US administration re-engaged in the fight against climate change. It is aiming big in the United States, even beyond non-residential activities, by seeking collaborations similar to those already established with the automobile group Tesla and with major international architects. Benoit Bazin is already developing teams and fine-tuning an organization in this direction. A new challenge for this passionate mountain climber, with 2025 in view, the date on which Saint-Gobain will celebrate its 360 years of existence.
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