In July 2025, Interstar Materials Inc., a Canadian manufacturer of granular pigments used in construction, announced its acquisition by Saint-Gobain.

This expands the distribution footprint for Interstar’s products, and at a time when tariff pressures are affecting many industries in Canada, executives provided further details on why this acquisition needed to happen now.

“We’re bullish on Canada here at Saint-Gobain,” says Steve Williams, president of the construction chemicals division at Saint-Gobain. “From a demographic standpoint, we know we need more homes constructed in Canada, and in order to meet those construction targets, we’ve already invested about $4B in Canada.”

Steve refers to Saint-Gobain’s prior acquisitions of both Building Products of Canada in 2023 and Kaycan in 2022, both Canadian manufacturers also involved in construction.

“We feel like we’ve reached a certain level of growth here in Canada,” says Zachary Gillman, president at Interstar Materials Inc. “We’ve been growing over the last fifteen years and are now the market leader here. But in order for us to have more of a global reach and expand into other countries, becoming a part of Saint-Gobain was necessary.”

“It gives us the opportunity for future growth as part of a larger organization.”

The executives were asked about the market conditions, in an era when many manufacturing companies across a variety of industries are taking a wait-and-see approach to capital investments and acquisitions.

“The tariffs are having a very limited impact on us,” says Steve. “Right now, our products are protected by the CUSMA provisions, but even before the tariffs came into the picture we made sure to have a local sourcing strategy as well.”

Despite the impact being limited, Steve made sure to emphasize that the evolving trade war is “something that we’re watching on a daily basis, having regular meetings on how it’s evolving, because it’s so dynamic.”

The Interstar leader was asked how the acquisition would impact Canadian jobs and manufacturing as well.

“Our distribution network is now larger. Just by scale, we now go from having 12 sales representatives to having over 200 sales representatives in North America. There’s a lot more opportunity for growth everywhere.”

In a press release, Saint-Gobain stated that “it will continue to operate the granular pigment and dispenser business under the Interstar brand within the U.S. and Canada.”

One of the reasons for why a local sourcing strategy works in the concrete and construction chemicals sector is because the actual concrete that the pigments and construction chemicals go into is heavy, and will thus further increase costs and transportation time if the pigments and chemicals are sourced from a greater distance.

“Saint-Gobain is manufacturing construction chemicals that go into concrete, and Interstar is manufacturing the coloured granular pigments that go into concrete. These are very heavy bulk materials that don’t transport very easily so it’s very much a local business.”

One of the side-effects of having a localized supply chain seems to be avoiding certain tariff-related penalties associated with border crossings.

In recent years, there have been developments in the sustainable concrete manufacturing, with many manufacturers proposing net-zero solutions. Carbon Upcycling, and CarbiCrete by Saint-Gobain are just some of the current offerings being developed.

The executives were asked how close the industry was to making a complete net-zero transition.

“It’s definitely a strong focus for the industry as a whole,” says Steve. “It’s a CO2-intensive industry and we’re trying to decarbonize the built environment as much as possible. Through our venture arm, NOVA, we’re looking for startups and opportunities to accelerate that decarbonization.”

The value-added acquisition essentially adds coloured pigments to Saint-Gobain’s portfolio, something they did not have before.

“Our granular pigment is one-of-a-kind. It’s very friendly to the ready-mix industry. We also make dispensing systems to automate the process at the plant level, which is a little bit different than what our competitors do,” says Zachary. “We’re offering a turnkey solution to the ready-mix industry.”

“What Interstar is doing with granular pigments is completely new, and because we supply concrete admixtures to the same clients they’re supplying coloured pigments to, there are nice opportunities for synergies now through this acquisition,” says Steve.

Both companies stated that they are focused on continued growth for the rest of the year, with the Saint-Gobain leader citing “business continuity” and “protecting relationships” with its customers, and Interstar’s leader citing the “gradual integration into the Saint-Gobain family” and expanding globally as current goals.

The acquisition brings the Canadian manufacturer of granular pigments under Saint-Gobain’s roof, as the concrete manufacturing industry within Canada continues to compete.