Saint-Gobain forms innovative partnerships

Norton Co., acquired by Saint-Gobain in 1990, opened its research and development center in Northboro in 1985. Now some of its 360 professionals are contributing to innovation in 55 partnerships between Saint-Gobain and innovative materials startups around the world. Among those is Los Angeles-based Grenite Sustainable Solutions, a maker of so-called sustainable materials used to make countertops.

On June 20, I interviewed Erik Johnson, a managing partner of Grenite, which sprung up in 2005 from Greneker, the 75-year-old mannequin and retail display company where Mr. Johnson is the chief executive officer.

Greneker has an interesting history. Its founder was Lillian Greneker, a sculptress in New York City whose work found its way onto the Broadway stage. From there, various department stores decided she could do a great job designing and making mannequins. Ms. Greneker moved the company to Los Angeles in the 1950s, after which it passed through the hands of several owners before Mr. Johnson acquired it.

Mr. Johnson was not pleased that Greneker and its peers lagged in the adoption of sustainable materials. The industry continued to make mannequins and displays from fiberglass and other petroleum-based materials. And Mr. Johnson decided to do something about this problem.

To that end, one of his green colleagues introduced him to recyclable materials. Specifically, Grenekers R&D labs started testing so-called refractory ceramics, which were used to insulate steel mill furnaces and glass kilns. This resulted in Grenite sustainable, engineered stone counters made of 85 percent recycled materials with maintenance-free properties that customers found quite appealing. As a result, Mr. Johnson and his partners, Randy Riley and George Cox, introduced it to Wal-Mart, an existing customer, which asked GSS to manufacture enough for the big retailer to use as countertops in more than 100 stores. Orders soon followed from other big retailers interested in sustainable building practices.

And this success left GSS at a strategic crossroad to decide whether it should go out and raise the capital needed to invest in manufacturing, distribution, R&D and service, or find a partner. Mr. Johnson decided that Greneker lacked the capabilities to manage Grenites growth internally, so he started looking for partners.

Among those considered initially were some of the traditional counter-top companies. These included Formica and Wilsonart, who were introduced to Mr. Johnson through a mutual colleague. After meeting with them, however, Mr. Johnson concluded that despite their burgeoning efforts in the field of sustainability, their infrastructures did not fit with Grenites long-range vision.

However, when Mr. Johnson met with Saint-Gobain, he realized that it was the perfect fit. From Saint-Gobain, Grenite would get a deep corporate commitment to the development of sustainable materials, along with the ability to convert his artisanal manufacturing process into a mass-production one housed at a new Saint-Gobain plant in Ravenna, Ohio. Moreover, Mr. Johnson saw an opportunity to benefit from Saint-Gobains global presence and its extensive R&D capabilities.

For its part, the 350-year-old Saint-Gobain was getting an innovative product that was consistent with the mission of one of its corporate groups. That group, called NOVA External Venturing, is an international group of Saint-Gobain analysts (founded in 2006) that identifies and evaluates startup companies for partnerships with the company. As Michael Mahoney, North American manager of Saint-Gobain External Venturing, explained in a June 20 interview, Saint-Gobain has a large annual budget for R&D and is looking for ways to commercialize it. Specifically, the company has 15 R&D centers, including the 360-person R&D center in Northboro, where Mr. Mahoney is based.

NOVA tries several different approaches to finding innovative companies that fit with Saint-Gobains vision of becoming the global reference in sustainable habitat in construction products, advanced materials, energy efficiency and environmental sustainability (including recycling materials such as wood, using green materials and improving indoor air quality).

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Saint-Gobain forms innovative partnerships