The 2005 Award for Manufacturing Investments in Japan given to Saint-Gobain
November 28th, 2005
On November 28, 2005, the Invest in France Agency (AFII), the French Government agency for promoting foreign investments in France, organized a symposium in Tokyo. At the end of the symposium there was an awards ceremony for Japanese investments in France, and French investments in Japan.
The ceremony was attended by Clara Gaymard, President of the AFII, Francois Loos, French Minister for Industry and Bernard de Montferrand, the French Ambassador to Japan, and Saint-Gobain was presented with the 2005 Award for Manufacturing Investments in Japan, which was received by Roberto Caliari, Senior Vice president of the Saint-Gobain Group in charge of the High Performance Materials Sector. This was in recognition of the success of two of Saint-Gobain’s investments in Japan - NSG Vetrotex in 2002 (Reinforcement), and SGTM (Electrofused Refractories - SEFPRO) in 2003.
This event gave us an opportunity to recall the reasons why Saint-Gobain has positioned Japan as a strategic country for long-term investments. These reasons include:
- - Japanese customers and competitors are the most advanced from a technical point of view
- - Japanese customers are extremely demanding in terms of quality and services
- - R&D is a crucial part of business in Japan
NSG Vetrotex and SGTM, two joint ventures which are 60% controlled by Saint-Gobain, are the most recent and significant examples of the way we want to transform this strategic approach into reality. All together Saint-Gobain controlled companies at the end of 2004 represented a global turnover of 330 million Euros from 8 plants and 700 people. If we include minority shareholdings, there are around 1,500 people currently working for a Saint-Gobain affiliated company in Japan, and turnover achieved in 2004 was approximately 650 million Euros.
The event also gave us the opportunity to show our gratitude to our Joint Venture partners, Nippon Sheet Glass and Nippon Electric Glass, who both honored us by attending.
The award was received by Roberto Caliari, representing the Group
Award for Manufacturing Investments in Japan was presented
Contact
Francois-Xavier Lienhart
Tel. +81 3 5275 0861