Fritz von Langsdorff

Fritz von Langsdorff was a highly skilled German civil engineer but he was known, by many, as simply “Mr. UNI-Stone”. In 1964 he formed a company in Germany to license this new interlocking concrete paver shape nationally and soon internationally, and so if Ed wanted to manufacture the product he would need to secure a license from Fritz. Ed met Fritz in Germany in 1971 and they immediately hit it off. After a visit to Toronto to meet with Ed, Fritz agreed to share his know-how and license to produce the UNI-Stone for Ontario.

The friendship between Ed and Fritz ran deep. They partnered up and raised the capital to purchase the first Hess multi-layer machine which allowed the company to produce paving stones at scale, albeit just one product (UNI-Stone) in one color (natural). In the late 1970’s Ed and Fritz traveled to the US and formed UNI-Group U.S.A., an organization that still exists today, uniting manufacturers who had licensed the UNI-Stone.

The next paver shape was UNI-Decor, known in some markets as UNI-Cobble. This shape was another immediate success, boosting the popularity of paving stones exponentially and spurring a series of copycat products. Fritz steadfastly defended the patent he had secured for this product, taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and winning his case, thus setting a precedent in the paver industry that patents must be respected. Over the following decades, Fritz introduced many more paving stone innovations to North America, including UNI Anchorlock (the first paver for mechanical installation) and UNI Eco-Stone (the first permeable paving stone) and numerous others, helping UNILOCK to stay the leading edge of the paver industry.