It’s March 2020 and Alberta’s housing market seemed to collapse overnight. As the first wave of COVID spread and the world began to shut down, builders told Star Building Materials they were cutting housing starts for the remainder of the year.  

For a company whose fortunes rose and fell with residential construction, that forecast sounded the alarm. 

Facing real questions about the future of their business, Star’s leadership team chose courage and forward-thinking. In a boardroom where the mood could easily have tilted toward reductions and cost-cutting, they asked a different question: what opportunities were hiding under the rocks everyone else was too scared to flip?  

That mindset didn’t just carry Star through, it was a driving force. It propelled them into a period of growth that has redefined how homes are built across Western Canada. 

A Legacy Company Faces Its Biggest Test 

Star Building Materials is no stranger to cycles. Founded in the 1950s, it grew from a single Winnipeg lumberyard into a vertically integrated building supply company spanning everything from trusses to Engineered Wood Products (EWP), to Wall Panels and interior finishings as a subsidiary of Qualico, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 

In Alberta, Star became a fixture in Calgary and Edmonton, serving the housing booms fueled by oil prices and enduring the busts when the sector slowed. 

That volatility shaped the company’s culture. Leaders like Vice President of Alberta operations Ken Crockett and Director of Manufacturing, David Klassen knew resilience was the key to survival. But even they admit that spring in 2020 felt different.  

“It was like standing on the edge of a cliff,” recalled Crockett. While competitors pulled back, Star took the leap.  

They entered the wall panel business by acquiring equipment and staff from a retiring operator, securing key customers along the way. The risk of the acquisition seemed enormous at the time, but in hindsight, it was a relatively small leap that unlocked enormous momentum. 

Betting on Boise Cascade’s Automated Saw 

Star’s courage to invest in new technology led to new heights. In 2019, the company had expanded its Calgary lumber and EWP footprint from a cramped four-acre site to nearly 13 acres, building a new warehouse specifically to house Boise Cascade’s automated SawTek® system. 

Traditionally, Star Building Materials cut joists with chainsaws, while installers on the jobsite would trim ends to fit. The SawTek system changed that equation entirely. It cut each piece to within a sixteenth of an inch and labeled it to make the installation faster and more accurate for the crew.  

The payoff was immediate. Before SawTek, Star fielded two to three callbacks per day from installation errors, missing, or damaged joists. After SawTek, callbacks fell to one or two per month.  

Homebuilders quickly realized what this meant to their businesses: no more downtime waiting on replacement product and faster install times once the product was on the jobsite. 

“It’s just a puzzle piece. Lay it down, nail it together,” said Klassen. 

Large tract builders began requesting that every package be cut this way. What Star thought would be a gradual rollout became virtually an instant standard practice. Even smaller custom builders, whose plans often weren’t yet proven, benefited from labeled cuts to the nearest three inches, dramatically reducing jobsite waste. 

Both Crockett and Klassen said the system paid for itself quickly. Environmentally, the savings were also dramatic. Star calculated that its Calgary operations alone kept the equivalent of nine Calgary Towers’ worth of lumber out of landfills each month.  

“We were blown away when we ran the numbers,” said Klassen. 

Game-Changer During the Pandemic 

The value of the SawTek saw continued to prove itself, especially when the pandemic brought material and labor constraints into the market. Star made the most of its inventory, and builders who received pre-cut job packs had fewer mistakes and less waste. Precision cuts and product labeling had become seen as a non-negotiable. It helped Star provide extra value, and customers rewarded the company with their loyalty – a win-win.   

“Our builders trusted us because we trusted ourselves to execute,” stated Crockett. 

All of this helped Star not just retain market share but grow as they stayed a step ahead of competitors, utilizing their investment in the SawTek technology. 

“It really changed our philosophy,” Crockett reflected. “It gave us courage to take big swings. And it built trust with builders that we could react and execute when it mattered most.” 

Scaling Up: From One Saw to Three 

The success of the first Calgary SawTek led to more investments in the technology. By 2023, Star had expanded again, expanding the 13-acre site to 31 acres, adding a second saw. A third is now coming online in Edmonton and Star expects the same market shift they triggered in Calgary — once crews experience the system, they won’t want to go back. 

Today, Star’s Calgary operation alone cuts nearly 40,000 pieces of joist with SawTek each month.  

Difficult circumstances, especially over the last five years, could have been detrimental to Star Building Materials. Instead, it was iron sharpening iron. The company’s culture of resilience, innovation, and courage was tested and strengthened. By looking ahead, Star turned a crisis into a catalyst. 

“Looking back at it today, the risks seemed very small,” Crockett explained. “But at the time, it was a big deal, and it turned out to be a game-changer.”