NAICS 3279Industry group · 4-digitlocal market1 market record

Other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing

This industry group comprises establishments, not classified to any other industry group, primarily engaged in manufacturing non-metallic mineral products. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 546
Under 10 employeesA: 51%
Establishments · USA: 3,307
Employment · USA: 81,882
Payroll · USA: $5.3B

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–415528%

5–912323%

10–1913124%

20–499016%

50–99336%

100–19992%

200–49931%

500+20%

Of 546 Canadian establishments with employees, 51% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario21539%

Quebec15228%

British Columbia8315%

Alberta479%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Manufacturing, US · opened 2020

86.2%

1 year

70.8%

3 years

58.4%

5 years

45.3%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 327, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 327 Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing

Concrete and aggregates do not travel, so each market is a haul radius and often a local oligopoly. Entry means a permitted site, which is the scarce thing.

Who sets the price: Whoever owns the nearest pit or plant.
The software it runs on: Batching, dispatch and ticketing.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Operating businessScreened

Stone Countertop Fabrication ShopOne thing must be true

binding constraint: defensibility

A residual group, and most of it is not reachable: abrasives and mineral-wool or fibreglass insulation are continuous-process plants owned by multinationals, and they were not examined here. The reachable niche is the one Statistics Canada lists in the class as "counter tops, stone" — a shop with a bridge saw, a CNC router and an install crew, cutting purchased slab to a kitchen template. Half of the group's 546 Canadian establishments have fewer than ten employees, which is what that shop looks like. It is a different proposition from the permitted pit in the Ready-Mix Concrete & Aggregates record: nothing here is scarce. The cut is that the fabricator owns nothing the next fabricator cannot buy. The slab is a branded product every shop sources from the same distributors; the job arrives through a kitchen dealer, a builder or a big-box programme that takes three quotes; and the saw is a catalogue item. What that does to price is visible one step upstream. Caesarstone, a global quartz-slab brand, reported 2025 revenue of $397.2M against $443.2M in 2024, gross margin down to 18.4%, a $137.5M net loss, and closed its Bar-Lev plant to buy slab from third-party producers instead [A] — it cites competitive pressure, particularly in North America. When the branded input is being commoditised by imports, the shop cutting it has no margin of its own to defend. A second pressure is arriving. Caesarstone carries a $47.2M provision against silicosis claims from 618 individuals [A]. Those claimants worked in fabrication shops. Dust control and its liability land on the fabricator, and they raise the cost of being small.

NAICS 32796 vendors named9 sourced figuresOpen →

Filed above — wider than this industry

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 327 Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing

Ready-Mix Concrete & AggregatesStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost + regulatory drag

Aggregate pits are among the best local businesses that exist — a haul radius is a natural monopoly and the product cannot be imported economically — which is exactly why the permit is the whole business and takes years, public hearings and reclamation bonding to obtain. Buying an existing permitted pit means paying for that moat in full. Ready-mix without owned aggregate is the low-margin half of the same industry, buying its input from the competitor.

NAICS 3276 vendors named11 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Batching, dispatch and ticketing.

Catalogued categories — named, not analysed

Discrete manufacturing ERP SaaS 31-33

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Companies in this industry · 5

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

Company	Filed under	Revenue	Rank
CaesarstoneCSTE	Other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing3279	$397M	1/5
Cambria, Wilsonart, Vicostone and the imported quartz brandsPrivate	Other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing3279	—	2/5
CosentinoPrivate	Other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing3279	—	3/5
Home Depot, Lowe's, Floor & Decor and IKEA countertop programmesPrivate	Other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing3279	—	4/5
MSI and the slab distributorsPrivate	Other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing3279	—	5/5

Who works here

The occupations employed in Manufacturing, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Aircraft assemblers and aircraft assembly inspectors One industry 91.3%

Supervisors, assembly and fabrication One industry 88.3%

Machine operators and related workers in pulp and paper production and wood processing and manufacturing One industry 86.1%

Managers in manufacturing and utilities One industry 84.4%

Machine operators and related workers in chemical, plastic and rubber processing One industry 82.7%

Mechanical, electrical and electronics assemblers and inspectors One industry 82.3%

Machine operators and related workers in food, beverage and associated products processing One industry 79.1%

Machine operators and related workers in mineral and metal products processing and manufacturing One industry 77.7%

Furniture, wood, plastic and other products assemblers, finishers and inspectors One industry 73.9%

Machine operators and related workers in textile, fabric, fur and leather products processing and manufacturing One industry 70.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Other technical trades Across the economy 20%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 16.3%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 15.2%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 11.6%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 10.7%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 9.6%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 9.2%

Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 8.3%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 7.7%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 4.8%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

2 rows sit directly beneath 3279, and 4 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
32791	Abrasive product manufacturing	44	screened at 3279
32799	All other non-metallic mineral product manufacturing	502	screened at 3279

Alongside it, under 327 Non-metallic mineral product manufacturing

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
3271	Clay product and refractory manufacturing	97	Clay Brick Plant (and Studio Ceramics)
3272	Glass and glass product manufacturing	298	Glass Fabrication Shop (Tempering & Insulating Units)
3273	Cement and concrete product manufacturing	1,239	Precast Concrete Products Plant
3274	Lime and gypsum product manufacturing	50	Gypsum Wallboard & Lime Plant