Mapei has announced it will be extending its famous old headquarters in Laval, Canada, which marked the Group’s first step towards internationalisation back in 1978. It is building a new plant for manufacturing powder products, a new research and development centre for additives for concrete, and a cutting-edge distribution centre covering a total area of over 4700 m².

Mapei will be investing C$25 million to expand its existing factory, which will come into operation in 2023. The idea is to boost product distribution and services in Québec, the maritime provinces and the whole of Canada to meet the rising demands of clients in North America. The new project is a further addition after the construction of a factory for manufacturing additives for concrete, Mapei’s first in Canada recently constructed on the site in Laval.

“This new investment has emotional as well as strategic value - so Veronica Squinzi announced, Mapei’s CEO -. Canada is where we opened our first foreign branch in 1978 marking the start of an internationalisation strategy that is still one of our most distinctive traits”. “Whenever undertaking an expansion project - so Ms Squinzi went on to say -, Mapei always focuses on two goals: to create highly professional organisations with a deep understanding of the local market to support their operations and to contribute to developing the local community. Our growth policy stands out for its long-term thinking and the fact we are always ready to invest to boost our operations in a given location, supplying cutting-edge products tailored to the needs of the local market, thanks partly to notable investment in research”.

After first breaking onto the Canadian market in 1976 by supplying products for laying the athletics tracks for the Montréal Olympics, Mapei opened its first factory outside Italy (through Mapei Inc.) in an industrial district of Laval, close to Montréal, in 1978, where it began manufacturing adhesives for installing ceramic tiles and carrying out research and development into increasingly innovative products for the Canadian market and rest of North America. At the end of the 1980s, Mapei also began expanding towards the west of the country. Nowadays, Mapei operates through five sites in Canada employing approximately 350 staff.