6
NOVEMBER 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
CELEBRATING 350
YEARS OF GLASS
Saint-Gobain recently celebrated a remarkable milestone of 350 years in business – taking the opportunity
to remind everyone of the strength that is acquired through 350 years of history and ongoing innovation.
Saint-Gobain’s global strategy is focused around meeting some of the fundamental
challenges faced by the
world today: reducing energy
consumption, limiting our impact on the environment, and
creating a new generation
of buildings which are safe,
comfortable and energy
efficient.
Steve Severs, Managing Director, Saint-Gobain Glass Industry
commented: “Saint- Gobain has
evolved and adapted across business types and territories to maintain growth and success in its 350
years. Even in the short history
of Eggborough we have changed,
adapted and updated our own
business model to prosper.
“Thus the 350 celebration represents international recognition of
the local and corporate capability to innovate, to work through
people and to re- develop our
businesses so that we face the
future from a position of strength
and can be truly classed as sustainable.”
Between 14-17 October, SaintGobain Glass hosted a series of
events to celebrate the 350 years
landmark. The first event was a
customer celebration on site at
Eggborough which entertained
a room full of customers and
focused on the challenges faced
by businesses in the future with
guest speaker James Stacey, from
the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Richard
Batley, Director of HR & CSR at
Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland.
The day also included opportunities to network, a site tour and
a charity auction – which raised
over £3,000 for MacMillan Cancer
Support
The second event was devoted
to recognising the contribution
that employees had made, with
speeches and plenty of fun activities for everyone to try - including a giant Scalextric, segways,
archery, and a climbing wall.
The third day was spent with
pupils from three local schools
who were inspired by a series
of activities, including a poster
competition, watching a demonstration of glass being blown and
an insight into life working as a
macon around the furnace.
The final day was devoted to
the often unsung heroes – friends
and family – with nearly 400
people attending to experience
the Eggborough plant in operation and take part in a fun day of
activities which included shooting, adventure playgrounds and
mobile zoo.
Saint-Gobain Glass and Glassolutions (also part of the SaintGobain Group) held a joint party
at the historic Tower Bridge in
London. Around 150 guests from
the architectural and insurance
markets, as well as key glass customers and stakeholders, including Peter Hindle MBE enjoyed an
evening’s entertainment. Simon
Carin, MD of Building Glass UK
and Ireland hosted the evening
and introduced the guest of honour, historian and TV presenter,
Dan Cruickshank.
The celebrations included a
specially designed 350th anniversary cocktail named Pont de
Verre, and a ‘selfie station’ that
encouraged guests to take photos of themselves on the newly
installed glass floor walkways at
Tower Bridge, and share them
on social media. The venue holds
special significance for SaintGobain because Glassolutions
designed and installed the two
glass floor walkways last year, to
create unique views of the bridge
and river below, and to enhance
the appeal of the historic, Grade I
listed visitor attraction.
The events in the glass division
complimented a number SaintGobain events held around the
globe during 2015. These included exhibitions in Shanghai, Sao
Paulo, Philadelphia and Paris in
addition to an online exhibition,
the creation of an online game
“World 350”. In the UK, a charity
bike ride was also held earlier in
the year with riders cycling from
London to the Saint-Gobain Archives in Blois which raised over
£120,000 for MacMillan Cancer
Support and the Irish Cancer
Society.
The history of Saint-Gobain has
been detailed in an ‘anniversary
book’ in five different languages,
available in bookshops worldwide. Historical documents show
that in October 1665 the King
of France granted the financier
Nicolas Dunoyer and his associates the exclusive right to
manufacture ‘mirror glass’. The
aim was to compete directly with
the supremacy of the Republic
of Venice in the European mirror
market. The Saint-Gobain name
originates from a town in Northern France of the same name
where a technique called ‘table
casting’ was devised for manufacturing large sheets of mirror glass.
The glass works remained open
until 1993.
Visit www.saint-gobain.com or
www.saint-gobain-glass.com and
the twitter account @saintgobain