Pace Cranes officially opened their new facility in Sydney’s southern suburb of Peakhurst on Thursday while celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary.
The new workshop floor became a makeshift dining room filled with family, friends, staff, industry associates and business partners past and present – though these distinctions often blurred in what felt a lot more like an end-of-year family gathering.
No good birthday party is without its gifts (and speeches) and Pace’s anniversary was no exception. German company Sennebogen presented the company with a beautiful sculpture, while gifts from Japanese partner companies Maeda and Rasa Corporation stole the show.
Maeda presented Pace Cranes with the first 3D model the Japanese company created of its MC815. Using leftover manufacturing material, Maeda also created a miniature model of Pace Cranes’ new Peakhurst facility.
Rasa Corporation gifted Pace Cranes with a traditional samurai helmet and the words of a Japanese proverb which cautions one to tighten their helmet after a victory; Rasa Corporation president Shuichi Imura urged Pace Cranes to continue fighting for the shared prosperity of Pace Cranes and its associates. Indeed, both Rasa and Maeda ascribed their respective companies’ success in Australia to the efforts, work and relationships maintained by Pace Cranes.
Pace Cranes founder and chairman Paul Heeks attributed those efforts to staff past and present without whom the company wouldn’t have survived.
“I think everybody here knows that it’s not just an individual or a couple of people that allow a company to prosper over 30 years. We’ve been blessed with fantastic staff, many of them serving many, many years,” Heeks said.
A sake ceremony, or kagami biraki, ensued with Paul Heeks and Anthony Heeks donning traditional Japanese robes to break open the lid of a cask of sake, symbolising the opening of harmony and good fortune for the new facility.
Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure, Mark Coure, who is also Member for Oatley, led the ribbon cutting ceremony, offically opening the facility.
Then, the party well and truly began…