Saint-Gobain

From Wikicompany

Saint-Gobain Group is a French company, which originally was a glassmaking company, but now also manufactures a variety of structural and high-performance materials.

Saint-Gobain has 3 business divisions:

• Glass
• Building Products
• High Performance Materials

Saint-Gobain operates in more than 50 countries, and has sales of more than $30 billion.

History

The Compagnie de Saint-Gobain was founded in 1665 when King Louis XIV wanted to build a new palace to be located in the French countryside, outside Paris, in a town called Versailles.

Louis's Minister of Economy, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, was appointed to construct the facility and display various new technologies in the new palace. One of the technologies to be presented was glass.

At the time, the French did not possess glassmaking capabilities; rather Venice was known as the world leader for glass manufacturing. Colbert then commissioned the Venetians to buid the mirrors that were known as the "Hall of Mirrors". This was the beginning of the Compagnie de Saint-Gobain.

Saint-Gobain has been in Germany since 1857, in Italy since 1889, in Belgium since 1900, in Spain since 1904, in Japan since 1917, in Brazil since 1937, in Australia since 1938 and in the United States since 1959. Today, the Group is present in 50 countries.