Saint-Gobain in Brief

Saint-Gobain is a decentralised Group with its activities organised into four sectors. Each sector is responsible for its strategy worldwide. Delegations represent the Group in each country where it operates and coordinate the operations of its various companies.

The Group's Executive Management defines the strategy of Saint-Gobain as a whole.

The Functional Divisions come under the Compagnie de Saint-Gobain: Human Resources, Finance, Research and Development, Corporate Planning, Legal and Fiscal Affairs, Communications, Internal Audit and Business Control, Marketing.

Key Figures

After a broadly satisfactory start to the year, the Group's businesses were hit as from the second quarter by the deteriorating economic climate in Europe and by difficult trading in Flat Glass, in both Europe and Asia and emerging countries. Sales edged down 1.9% on a like-for-like basis (comparable Group structure and exchange rates), with volumes down 3.6% and prices up 1.7% over the year as a whole. Barring Interior Solutions - buoyed by the upturn in residential construction in the US and the growing energy efficiency market in Europe - and Packaging (Verallia) - boosted by good household consumption levels, all of the Group's Business Sectors and Divisions saw sales decline over the year as a whole, affected by the slowdown in industrial and residential construction markets in Western Europe. While Latin America picked up in the second half, markets in Asia and emerging countries remained stable overall in 2012. Among the major geographic areas in which the Group operates, only North America remained upbeat, fuelled by the ongoing upturn in housing and despite tough 2011 comparatives for this market (roofing renovations had been boosted in this prior period by severe storms).

In this challenging economic environment, with commodity and energy costs jumping over the year, sales prices remained an important priority for the Group, and moved up 1.7%, or 2.0% excluding Flat Glass.

Despite profitability gains in North America, the Group's operating margin narrowed, to 6.7% versus 8.2% in 2011, impacted mainly by the decline in sales volumes in Western Europe and a sharply negative price/cost spread in Flat Glass.

Markets

Saint-Gobain has now clearly defined itself with regard to the habitat and construction markets, in the broadest sense, having stated its new ambition to become "world leader on the habitat and construction markets, providing innovative solutions to the key challenges of our age: growth, energy and the environment". The immense potential of this sector certainly offers Saint-Gobain opportunities for developing its different activities.

History

There are probably two milestones that stand out in the Saint-Gobain Group’s long history:

• It was established in 1665
• Saint-Gobain and Pont-à-Mousson merged in 1970, initiating the process that made the Group what it is today.

Key Dates

• 1665: The Royal Glass Works founded
• 1688: First glass casting
• 1692: Factory opens at Saint-Gobain (Aisne, France)
• 1853: First Saint-Gobain site outside France (Mannheim, Germany)
• 1856: Pont-à-Mousson founded
• 1880: Exports from Pont-à-Mousson developed
• 1889: Saint-Gobain sets up in Italy (Pisa) followed by other sites in Belgium (1900) and Spain (1904)
• 1918: Saint-Gobain and Pont-à-Mousson begin to implement diversification policies
• From 1920: Glass production using continuous casting processes developed
• 1930: The use of centrifugation process for producing cast iron piping adopted by Pont-à-Mousson
• 1946: Ductile cast iron replaces grey cast iron for piping manufacturex
• From 1950: Saint-Gobain and Pont-à-Mousson begin to develop internationally
• 1957: TEL industrial glasswool production process begins to be used on an industrial scale
• 1962: Saint-Gobain adopts Float Glass (first factory built for this purpose)
• 1966: Shareholding acquired in CertainTeed
• 1970: Saint-Gobain and Pont-à-Mousson merge. Organisation reflecting the Group’s refocusing and complementary offering on the building, automotive and service markets
• 1974: The Group becomes established in the USA
• 1976: Majority holding in CertainTeed acquired
• 1982: The Group is nationalised
• 1986: Saint-Gobain is privatised. Group portfolio reconfiguration begins
• From 1986: Insulation sector expands internationally
• 1988: First acquisitions in the ceramics sector
• 1990: Friendly takeover of Norton
• 1994: Ownership of Cellulose du Pin transferred
• 1995: Ball & Foster in the USA acquired
• 1996: Acquisition of the Poliet Group (Point P, Lapeyre, La Plateforme, K par K, Weber)
• From 1998: Distribution developed via its brands in Europe (acquisition of Meyer, Raab Karcher, Jewson, Dahl) and worldwide (La Plateforme)
• 2005: Takeover bid for BPB
• 2007: Acquisition of Maxit