Company Description
Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of construction and high-performance materials. The Innovative Materials division conducts research into various areas of materials science, energy, the environment, and medicine, such as fuel cells or particle filters. It operates centres in Herzogenrath, Compiegne Cavaillon, Northborough, Massachusetts and Shanghai, employing 35,800 people. Overall, the division’s sales are made up of at least 30% new products. In 2006, total sales revenue was 4.9 billion euros. Innovative Materials also manufactures glass products, including self-cleaning, electrochromic, low-emissivity and sun-shielding glass. It is active in 39 countries, targeting emerging economies, a market that now accounts for more than one-third of the divisions sales. It employs a global workforce of 37,100 and in 2006 had sales revenues of 5.1 billion euros. This division is divided in two parts:
- Flat Glass subsidiaries : Saint-Gobain Glass, Glassolutions and Saint-Gobain Sekurit
- High Performance Materials : Saint-Gobain SEFPRO Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Saint-Gobain Crystals, Saint-Gobain Norton, Saint-Gobain Quartz and Saint-Gobain Norpro
In 2006, Saint Gobain announced a JV, Avancis, with Shell to produce PV modules based on CIS film technology. After the company had entirely owned Avancisnand its two plants in Germany manufacturing thin CIS film modules for some time, it was sold to China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBM) in 2014.
Assets connected to the Be-Smart Project
The role Saint-Gobain Sekurit Germany is to supply raw flat glass material and gives advices to the BE-Smart consortium in the range of glass sciences. In particular, Saint-Gobain has knowledge in glass colorization, production and processing.
