On the 14th of June SEKISUI S-Lec B.V. celebrated its 20th anniversary at the castle De Berckt. Around 150 people were invited to the medieval location, which is based in Baarlo, Netherlands. The guests could not only enjoy the beautiful environment but also an inspiring event filled with interesting speeches, a traditional Japanese birthday rite and an exciting announcement.
A stunning location at the countryside and perfect weather welcomed the guests – business partners and local politicans – of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V.’s 20th anniversary ceremony. People had the chance to meet old and new faces, before Guy Heijthuizen, Human Resource Manager SEKISUI S-Lec B.V., opened the ceremony with welcoming everyone. The two following speakers Mr. Kato, President of High Performance Plastics Company, SEKISUI Chemical, and Mr. Asano, General Manager of S-LEC Film Division, both SEKISUI Chemical,thanked SEKISUI S-Lec for its great work. Mr. Aoshima, Managing Director of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V., thanked his management and his employees for the achievements they made within the last 20 years. He provided some prospects into the growth strategy of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V.and surprised the guests by announcing the opening of the SEKISUI Research Center at Brightlands Chemelot Campus at the following day.
One of the highlights was a traditional Japanese birthday rite where people breake the lid of a sake barrel with the help of a wooden hammer. It stands for breaking the mirror so that the people won’t look back into the past anymore but can see into the future. The more sake is spilt whilst breaking the brighter the future will be. The challenge was accomplished successfully and the guests drank towards the future of the company.
Keita Kato, President of High Performance Plastics Company, SEKISUI Chemical
Yoshio Aoshima, Managing Director of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V.
Breaking the lid of a Sake barrel is a Japanese birthday rite
Beside Twan Beurskens, Vice-Governor of the Province Limburg, Henk Kamp, Minister of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands, visited the ceremony in person and thanked SEKISUI with a delightful speech for its work and contributions to the Dutch economics and technology research. Furthermore Nobuhiro Matsumoto, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce Netherlands, underlined the meaning of the company for the Dutch and Japanese economies. Afterwards the Marketing Department of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V. offered an exciting look into the future: They presented their ideas for creating new values for the glass interlayer technology especially within the automotive industry. The highlight was a mockup car equipped with a windscreen including the S-LecTM interlayer film foil, which is able to show up letterings at the outer area of the windscreen. It proved the innovative work of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V.
The anniversary ceremony ended with a dinner party, which was opened by Raja Fick-Moussaoui, Alderman of Roermond. Between the courses a local Taiko group, a traditional Japanese drum, performed on their instruments and congratulated SEKISUI S-Lec B.V. Jan Lemmens, Production Director of SEKISUI S-Lec B.V., closed the event with some words towards the guests and thanked them for coming. The whole ceremony showed that a European-Japanese cooperation can bring out a successful result.
