St. Marys Cement serves construction clients in both Canada and the United States with products for a variety of purposes, including portland and masonry cement.

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After more than nine decades, St. Marys Cement Inc. stands as a major supplier of cementitious materials to the Great Lakes Region. Based in Toronto, the company serves construction clients in both Canada and the United States, Quarry Manager Mike Smith says.

John Lind and Alfred Rogers founded the company in St. Marys, Ontario, Canada, in 1912. Originally, St. Marys used horse-drawn carriages to transport its cement products from its plant.

Over the years, St. Marys has grown to operate six U.S. and Canadian plants and possesses a production capacity exceeding 5 million tons annually. In addition, the company has contributed to the construction of such structures as the CN Tower and Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto.    

St. Marys produces a wide range of cement products for a variety of purposes, including portland and masonry cement. The company distributes its products through a network serviced by rail, trucks and barges. It is a subsidiary of Votorantim Cimentos, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Votorantim Cimentos operates 25 cement plants in the Americas with a total annual capacity of 28 million metric tons. St. Marys has been a subsidiary since 2001.    

Thanks to its parent, “St. Marys is now is benchmarking its operations and improving technical coefficients,” Smith says. 

St. Marys’ Success
Smith manages the quarry operation at St. Marys cement plant in Bowmanville, Ontario. He joined the company three years ago, after working for Dufferin Aggregates, a supplier of construction aggregates based in Concord, Ontario.

“[This business] allows you office work and outdoor work, and no day is ever the same,” Smith says. “You’re always doing something new and different.”

Under his leadership, the Bowmanville plant enjoyed a record year in 2006. “We crushed over 3 million tons of limestone to make cement,” Smith recalls. “It was the most that was produced from this facility in its 40-year history.”

ISO 9001 certified St. Marys enjoys a 90 percent rate of repeat business, Smith says.

“We have internal quality requirements that exceed the minimum requirements,” he says. “[We have] addressed [them] before they become quality concerns for the customers.”

St. Marys has been recognized for its investments in environmental initiatives. The St. Marys Bowmanville plant is ISO 14001-certified. For instance, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and Cement Americas magazine gave St. Marys’ Bowmanville site the Environmental Performance Award in 2007.

According to PCA, the Bowmanville plant implemented an environmental management system in 2006 that enabled it to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 53 percent and nitrogen oxide emissions by 18 percent. In addition, PCA named the plant as a runner-up in the Land Stewardship and Energy Efficiency categories.

In January, St. Marys announced that Natural Resources Canada presented it with the 2007 Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation Leadership Award, in the Employee Awareness and Training category. The award recognized the company for undertaking an energy management workshop at its Bowmanville plant.

“St. Marys has always been committed to environmental stewardship, so when an opportunity to become more energy efficient presented itself, we took the initiative to put a formal plan into place,” Environmental Manager Martin Vroegh said in a statement. He noted that the plan – the Energy Management Conservation Committee (E=MC2) – has allowed the firm to enjoy energy savings of $430,000.

E=MC2 was implemented at the company’s plants in Bowmanville and St. Marys, where it has developed 45 energy-saving initiatives and energy efficient projects. In addition, St. Marys says the committee also identified other solutions for its North American plants, including the installation of photocells in unoccupied areas and the optimization of fan bypass systems.

A Strong Contributor
St. Marys has a history of charitable donations, Smith says. For instance, in 2006, the company donated $1 million for the construction of the Pyramid Recreation Centre, a community and recreation complex for St. Marys’ residents.

“St. Marys is an active contributor to the communities where we operate,” CEO Erik Madsen said. “We’re particularly proud to help the town of St. Marys build this important recreational facility, since this community has done so much to help our company grow.”

According to the company, the center will feature an aquatics facility with a lap pool, a therapeutic whirlpool and splash pad.

The company’s donations to the community have also included the contribution of 35 acres for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.