Saint Gobain celebrated the 350th year anniversary

Saint-Gobain organized an anniversary event in Romania, celebrating the company’s 350th anniversary and the history of the men and women who together have built the oldest company included in the CAC 40 French stock market index and one of the oldest manufacturing companies in the world. Saint-Gobain is one of the top 100 industrial groups in the world and one of the 100 most innovative companies as ranked by Thomson Reuters’

2015-09-22 16:12:50

"We are honoured that we had the privilege to meet and thank all our Romanian partners who supported us during the last 20 years of innovation and progress at local level. At global level Saint-Gobain's 350th Anniversary is an extraordinary milestone in the life of the company and its people. We will continue the tradition and do our best to be always one step ahead anticipating the future," declared Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive of Saint-Gobain.
Romania has been an important market and investment destination for Saint-Gobain and going forward, will be even more so. "On our anniversary we aim to strengthen our commitment even further by becoming the reference for sustainable habitat in Romania and growing our business in the next few years," continued Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive of Saint-Gobain.

"Since my appointment as head of this Embassy, I have been striving to make the economic dimension one of the main pillar of French-Romanian relations and I am pleased to see that Saint-Gobain contributes to this goal, due to its presence and its spectacular results in Romania. French companies account for nearly 15% of Romania's GDP, they are major employers and exporters of this country, they continue to invest in the country and consolidate our position as third most important foreign investor," declared His Excellency, Mr. Francois Saint-Paul, Ambassador of France in Romania.

Throughout its history, Saint-Gobain managed to transform itself without denying its past, which explains why it had such a responsible development of its activities in a way that respects both the environment and individual health and safety, and by forging solid partnerships with its surrounding communities. The Group still invests heavily today in designing innovative, high-performance building materials and in inventing tomorrow's sustainable habitat. In 2014, the Group invested over 400 million Euro in R&D, with 900 research projects, 400 patents filed, and 3,700 people employed in the field of research.

The Group believes in the potential of all geographic regions and builds its plants in every one of them, as a reflection of its long-term commitment to serving the needs of each market.
In mature countries, Saint-Gobain meets the demand for energy efficiency, while in high
growth-rate countries the company focuses on the rapidly increasing needs for housing, office space and other types of buildings.

Finally, the growing power of Saint-Gobain's digital platforms will also be a key driver of future differentiation, as these platforms will enable the company to raise the awareness of its solutions and brands, and to build closer relationships with its customers.

"We remain loyal to our vision to be the preferred supplier of the habitat field, our strategic objective is to develop and launch dedicated products and systems that are able to respond to the more and more pressing problems of today′s world: energy efficiency, environmental protection and sustainable growth. Thank you to all our partners and teams who understood that together we can generate value, both financially and for the welfare of all human beings," said Constantin Hariton, Deputy General Delegate of Saint-Gobain Group in Romania.

In 2015, Saint-Gobain is celebrating its 350th anniversary, 350 reasons to believe in the future. Backed by its experience and its capacity to continuously innovate, Saint-Gobain, the world leader in the habitat and construction market, designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance and building materials providing innovative solutions to the challenges of growth, energy efficiency and environmental protection. With 2014 sales of 41 billion Euro, Saint-Gobain operates in 66 countries and has over 180,000 employees.

In Romania, Saint-Gobain has eight activities (Abrasives, Brodrene Dahl, Glass, Isover, MTI Impex, PAM, Rigips and Weber), with approximately 1,100 employees and operates 12 production facilities in eight industrial sites located in Brasov, Braneşti, Calarasi, Ploiesti, Satu-Mare, Tulcea, Turda and Suceava.