INTERVIEW WITH KREITMAKER

kreitmaker is a concrete, masonry, and landscaping supplier in Toronto, Ontario. From brick, block, stone, and concrete to specialized tools and hardware, kreitmaker is a one-stop shop for high-quality products. Their customer base includes designers, architects, builders, contractors, landscapers, and homeowners. 

The company sources their products from different manufacturers across the globe to ensure they offer both innovative and traditional products that best suit customers’ needs. 

Since the inception 20 years ago, kreitmaker has brought value to customers by providing superior service, a wealth of knowledge, and the right products. 

Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?

Kreitmaker: Producing and delivering concrete. We have a fleet of volumetric concrete trucks for pouring across the Greater Toronto Area. From small residential to large commercial sites, we pour concrete for any project.

Providing a holistic product suite for building, including a large selection of cladding materials, structural building materials, landscaping materials, and more idea space showrooms. Our showrooms give architects, designers, and homeowners a new place to meet and work together to find the best building materials for their projects. With multiple workspaces, technology, product samples, and knowledgeable kreitmaker staff available, we aim to provide our customers with a comfortable space to find the products that will bring their visions to life.

E.E: What’s the news about new products?

Kreitmaker: We carry an extensive range of new building materials from Europe as we have noticed architects and designers are looking for new and unique ways of designing their next project. Some of the notable brands we have started carrying are listed below:

Randers Tegl  

Randers Tegl is taking a new approach to brick that we are excited to be a part of. Their line of Ultima brick has a length of 468 mm and a height of just 38 mm. This long format brick has created a significant demand as the dimensions of the brick create a unique and distinctive expression.

Randers Tegl also makes “GREENER” bricks. These are sustainable products produced exclusively with electricity from wind turbines and biogas. This means that the product’s environmental impact is reduced by 50% without compromising the technical qualities that characterize modern bricks. With these bricks, applying for certifications such as BREEAM or LEED is possible.

Nelissen brick

Nelissen brick has been producing hand moulded brick for over 100 years, offering various textures and colour options. These bricks give you a wide selection of both modern and traditional tastes. When getting bricks from Nelissen, no two bricks are the same, offering a beautiful variation in every build.

Mora Ceramicas

This brick collection from Spain is gaining a lot of popularity in Canada. We stock five different colour options as we find these to be the most popular: white, black, light grey, dark grey and vesta (dark blue / purple)

These bricks are in a linear, long format size and uniform in colour and texture with a matte flat finish, perfect for a modern project.

Akrolithos Stone 

Our newest collection of stone quarried in Greece. This is all-natural marble, slate, sandstone, granite, limestone and more.

This stone is perfect for wall applications, flooring, landscaping, and interior use. 

E.E: What are the ranges of products?

Kreitmaker: Our product suite aims to supply the entire building process. This includes:

  • Concrete 
  • Brick, natural stone, manufactured stone
  • Concrete block
  • Landscaping materials
  • Tools, hardware, and accessories
  • Buildings supplies 

We offer a large variety of the above products to ensure we can meet our customers’ unique needs. This includes exclusive bricks sourced from around the globe, ranging from traditional to modern styles.

E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?

Kreitmaker: The construction market has been consistently active in North America. We see continued opportunities for our business with lots of development in the city we are in, Toronto, and across the rest of the continent. With a big focus on sustainability and the environment coming to the forefront of the globe, products we offer like the SLURRYTUB and our use of Volumetric concrete trucks (which have a lower carbon footprint than ready-mix trucks) are more critical than ever. 

E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?

Kreitmaker: We are seeing an increase in the popularity of European-made brick in Canada and North America. The manufacturers and vendors we partner with are carefully selected based on unique styles, colour, size and texture. The new brick lines we carry excite architects and designers here as they have new products to create with, putting them in the spotlight of innovative builds.

We see more focus on environmentally conscious construction. We provide our customers with as much knowledge as possible on how our vendors produce the products we carry and how they consider the environment. Further, as mentioned above, we look for environmentally friendly products to move our industry forward in sustainability. 

E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?

Kreitmaker: One of the most innovative products that we carry is the SLURRYTUB. The SLURRYTUB is a portable washout tool that allows for the safe disposal of wet trade slurry by filtering out harmful sediments and contaminants from water. This product solves the problem of contractors or builders who use makeshift washout bins or, worse, their customers’ garden/backyard or sewage drains to dispose of the washout slurry that comes with cleaning tools. When contractors or builders wash out their tools at the end of the day, washout (or slurry) will include many contaminants, sediments, and heavy metals that are very harmful to our environment.

The SLURRYTUB provides an environmental solution to this problem. The steps for using the SLURRYTUB are easy. Similar to a coffee filter, you put a single-use filter into the SLURRYTUB, pour your slurry into the tub, and the filter will separate the sediments and contaminants, filtering out visibly clear water that can be drained down storm water drains safely, or reused on site. After 30 to 60 mins of draining, the contents remaining in the SLURRYTUB will harden and can be safely disposed of in a waste bin with the biodegradable filter. This is perfect for cleanup in small working areas and improves company’s reputations!

E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?

Kreitmaker: We strive to have the SLURRYTUB on every job site across North America, as it is the future of construction cleanup. We are always excited to partner with new dealers to help distribute this product across the continent.

We also aim to continue to lead the market in providing collaborative showrooms to enable our customers to create, with the best, most exclusive products.