Saint-Gobain Celebrates 350th Anniversary

One of Stephenville's largest employers, Saint-Gobain Abrasives, commemorated 350 years of existence on Thursday with a training event and celebration.

Few companies in the world have the staying power of Saint-Gobain. Astonishingly, it was created in 1665 by King Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert. To put that in perspective, that's only 45 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

Since then, Saint-Grobain has grown to be a world leader in the habitat-and-construction market. Approximately 470 people are employed at the Stephenville plant, with roughly 200,000 workers worldwide.

The local abrasives company opened its doors in 1976 as part of Norton Company. Norton was later acquired by Saint-Gobain and became Saint-Gobain Abrasives.

Human Relations Generalist, Myka Scarborough of Saint-Gobain said things kicked off Thursday with a fire drill evacuation followed by a rotation of all employees through seven training stations.

Those included a fitness presentation, fire extinguisher training, ladder safety, hand safety, environmental training, wellness presentation and a video presentation from Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of, Saint-Gobain.

Scarborough added that Dr. Linda Heflin of Heflin Family Clinic,members of the Stephenville Fire Department, and Barry Tooley, fitness professional, were a few of the guests that contributed to the stations.

In case you don't know exactly what our Saint-Gobain plant does, it designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance and building materials that are aimed at enhancing energy efficiency and environmental protection.

Specific examples are sanding belts and discs used in a wide variety of applications, including the automotive aftermarket, industrial, consumer, woodworking and aerospace markets.

The facility is also home to the Customer Service Center for Abrasives North America. The plant annually produces and ships more than 200 million products to more than 4,000 customers and distributors in 25 countries worldwide.