Crafter has opened a brand new, custom designed factory. The Mayor of YangJu City and guests from around the world cut the ribbon at the Grand Opening Ceremony near Seoul on May 14th 2009
The move, which is the result of five 5 years of planning and construction, is the seventh location for the company and was made in spite of the fact that Crafter only moved to a new 7,000 square metre purpose built factory as recently as the year 2000.
Shortly after the 2000 move, the Korean Government expressed an interest in using Crafter’s land for a housing development and entered into negotiations which enabled the company to purchase new land just five kilometres from the factory.
Crafter President, InJae Park, said, “Under normal circumstances, a company would expect to stay in a new factory for at least 20 years so that the cost could be written off over a long period. The deal that Crafter did with the government, combined with the realistic cost of the land, gave us the unique opportunity to be able to build a new and even more modern factory in the same area, so that we could retain all of our loyal and highly trained staff.”
The opening of the new factory was a very special occasion at Crafter and the management was pleased to share this with many friends and business partners from around the world. Visitors were greeted by a line of Korean ladies dressed in their colourful national dress and even more colour was added by massed bouquets of orchids.
The ceremony took place outside the new Crafter factory building and opened with a short service to bless the facility. This was followed by speeches from the mayor of Yangju City, HyunKwon Park (Chairman and founder of the company), InJae Park and finally Gareth Jones of Sutherland Trading UK who spoke on behalf of the international guests.
