Vancouver’s Kryton helps to make buildings more durable around the world
Kryton’s products are embedded in some of the world’s most recognizable buildings, including New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art.
Kari Yuers is an enthusiastic cheerleader for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Canada’s other international trade deals.
Yuers’s company, Kryton International, already distributes its concrete hardening and waterproofing products in nine of the 10 countries that have joined Canada in signing the groundbreaking CPTPP. On December 30, 2018, Canada was among the first six countries in the group to ratify the agreement.
Kevin Yuers, Kryton International Vice President of Operations, Ron Yuers, Founder and Chairman, and Kari Yuers, President and CEO.
“The agreement immediately helps our customers drop import tariffs down to zero or near zero,”
says Yuers. “When you have a value-added, high-end product, you need to differentiate, and price always plays a role. So it’s a good thing anytime you can take away some tax, help make your customers more competitive, and allow them to invest more in marketing and development.”
“Open borders and trade policies foster research and innovation by forcing businesses to stay competitive and offer their best to the consumer,”
she adds.
Yuers’s father Ron started Vancouver-based Kryton in 1973. She and her brother Kevin joined the workforce as kids, sweeping factory floors and sticking labels on buckets.
Kryton now employs more than 100 people. Its products are embedded in some of the world’s most recognizable buildings, including the Marina Bay Sands casino and hotel complex that dominates Singapore’s skyline; New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art; and the mammoth CityCenter development in Las Vegas, the largest privately funded development in U.S. history.
Yuers herself embodies Canada’s commitment to promoting gender equality as part of its progressive trade policy. She has no qualms about being a woman in a heavily male-dominated industry, or about doing business in male-dominated societies.
When it comes to work, Yuers says she is invariably seen as a business person first, and a woman second: “If I have felt trepidation in going to different jurisdictions, it’s always been put aside by the graciousness of people who want to do business, who want to collaborate and trade, and who are seeking the relationship building that is core to doing business.”
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