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News Release from: Fuji Photo Film (UK)
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 22 May 2006
Fuji Hun'ts MD Retires After 14 Years
With Company
Fuji Hunt's managing director, Paul Borloo,has retired from the company.
Fuji Hunt's managing director, Paul Borloo,has retired from the company After 14 years Borloo, who joined the company in 1982, will continue to work in an advisory capacity for the next 12 months, and he will regularly attend the company's offices in Sint Niklaas, near Antwerp (Belgium)
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 6 Jun 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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He has been succeeded by Shinichi Fujii.
Fjuii was previously manager of the finishing division at Fuji Photo Film's factory in Ashigara (Japan).
When Fuji Photo Film acquired Olin Hunt's worldwide photochemical business in 1989 and renamed it Fuji Hunt, it was generally expected that Japanese managing directors would be appointed to run the subsidiaries as was the normal procedure with other parts or the Fuji Photo Film organisation.
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However, recognising the value which the existing management added to the Fuji Hunt operation, including the Belgium-based plant covering Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Fuji decided to maintain the existing management in position, under the leadership of chief Paul Borloo.
Sinichi Fujii joined Fuji Photo Film in 1972 after graduating from the Hokkaido University in electronics engineering.
He worked initially as a process engineer in the coating and emulsion-making sector before moving to the finishing division.
Promotion required Fujii to travel widely on behalf of the group, so his move to Europe is not a new experience for him.
Fujii was part of the colour paper plant construction team for the Tilburg factory in The Netherlands from 1984 to 1989.
During that five-year period he was regularly travelling between Japan and The Netherlands before taking on a similar mission in Greenwood, South Carolina (USA) where he stayed until 1998.
It was after that assignment that he returned to Japan to head up the Ashigara plant finishing division.
Fujii believes the strength and spread of Fuji Hunt will be a great asset in facing the challenges ahead and he commented: "Due to our diversity we are currently enjoying a good business period but this will not be easy to maintain in the future, and I see the need for developing strong partners in Europe." He continued: "Fuji Hunt's expansion in the field of pressroom chemicals is strong and has achieved much - it is now the leading supplier in the world for these products, and expects to progress further.
The outlook for photo products is not so clear, but the spin-off benefit of the company's involvement in inkjet imaging products has done much to balance what would otherwise be a difficult market." Fujii sees inkjet as a still expanding field, and intends to capitalise on it to sustain Fuji Hunt's business.
He explained: "There is still a great deal of business in the photochemistry area as well and we are working hard to develop our market share, which has benefited recently from the withdrawal of other key players, but inkjet products are growing in importance, and much attention will be directed to expanding our activities in this sector." Paul Borloo said that he believed that successfully answering the challenges that market changes brought over his years with the company was one of his most important achievements.
The corporate side of the business also kept Borloo busy.
Apart from facing the major changes that the acquisition of the company by Fuji Photo Film brought about, he spearheaded Fuji Hunt's own acquisition trail with its takeover of companies in the pressroom chemistry sector.
They included Solco and DS Germany, as well as DS Chemport in Malaysia and Australia.
Borloo considers his appointment as the managing director of a Japanese company without any other Japanese managers as a development that was exceptional in any industry where Japanese manufacturers are major players.
He said: "This signified an important degree of recognition and trust in local management." Successfully negotiating with companies with a view to possible acquisitions provided a great deal of personal satisfaction for Borloo, as did the opportunities he instigated and developed for working on an international level, taking in all European countries, much of Africa, and dealing with American and Asian business partners worldwide.
Borloo believes Fuji Hunt is ready and well prepared for change: "Thanks to the importance which the Fuji Photo Film Group attaches to the development of new business and technologies, Fuji Hunt has been able to prepare a strategic approach, which includes setting up an innovation cell to maximise the research and development opportunities within Fuji Photo Film.
The company will develop these in to new Fuji Hunt business market opportunities." He added: "So far, Fuji Hunt has been hardly affected by the digital evolution, essentially due to its diversification strategy, which will continue, and the development of new businesses.
It is quite impressive how much Fuji Photo Film invests in its R and D and this gives Fuji Hunt the confidence that it can rely on the impressive technologies constantly being developed within the group as part of its own future progress.".
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