The founder of GSI Creos Daisaku Hayashi* utilized his vast experience in the raw silk trade and far-reaching connections in the United States to begin purchasing raw silk as the Japanese agent for the US silk importer Van Straaten and Havey, Inc. in 1927. He succeeded in supplying Van Straaten and Havey with large volumes of raw silk sourced from leading silk suppliers from across Japan. “D. Hayashi Shoten” was inaugurated in 1931 and an office was opened in New York in the United States in 1933, and this marked the start of GSI Creos as a company.
*Daisaku Hayashi is the person who used to serve as the New York branch manager of “Suzukishoten" which was major general trading company and had recorded the top annual sales in Japanese general trading company in the Taisho period.
GSI Creos started out with textiles as its sole business. It was not until the 1950s that we branched out into new fields. A local subsidiary was set up in New York, and the president at the time, Goro Seki, concluded an agency agreement with a global manufacturer of women’s sock knitting machines. At around the same time, agreements were entered into with other manufacturers dealing in textile dyes and textile auxiliary agents. This created the foundation of our Industrial Products Division of today.
In 2001, we changed our company name to the current name “GSI Creos Corporation.”
This name was created by combining the acronym for “global sophisticated intelligence” with “Creos,” which is a synthesis of the three words “create,” “reorient,” and “Eos,” the Greek goddess of dawn. This expresses that just as the goddess of dawn brings light at daybreak, our global, sophisticated professional human resources create new products and businesses, and covert dreams into reality.
Furthermore, during the same year, we entered the nanotechnology business. We had discovered special carbon nanotubes through technologies that were being used for the products of our Industrial Products Division, and began the application and development of these.
Also, in addition to our existing local subsidiaries in “New York, the United States” and “Shanghai, China,” we established ones in “Shenzhen, China,” “Seoul, South Korea,” “Jakarta, Indonesia,” and “Bangkok, Thailand.” This expanded our activities worldwide, and has been further accelerating our global development.
GSI Creos got started in the field of raw silk and then grew based on a variety of businesses. We have been making full use of our domestic and global networks, and have been focusing on creating new value in a wide range of fields while constantly giving awareness to “people’s everyday lives.”
Going forward, we will continue to develop businesses as a “business-creating trading company” that is centered on textiles and industrial products, and as a business producer seeking quality of life for the next generation. Furthermore, we will grow in line with the ever-changing social environment and lifestyle consciousness.
As the 100th anniversary of our establishment approaches, under the six pillars that make up our Company Philosophy “With Employees,” “With Shareholders,” “With Business Associates,” “With the Market,” “For the Environment,” and “For the Company Organization,” we will aim to expand our future-oriented business areas even more than before, centering on the fields of environment, lifestyle & health, and energy.
