Today we visited the Huntsman Chemical Corporation. When we arrived they rolled out the red carpet and it didn’t disappear until we left. We were greeted by Nick Webster the European Vice President and the Brussels, Belgium Plant Manager. We had a great discussion on some of the cultural differences of operating in Europe and it was great understanding Nick’s British perspective. We also discussed the Huntsman Chemical Corporation and their European presence.
We then went on a company tour and it was the coolest thing ever! Huntsman Chemical combines several different chemicals to produce a polyurethane material that they turn into sweet stuff used everywhere. Did you know that BMW seat cushions are a polyurethane material created by Huntsman? What about the soles of the Nike shoes that help you jump higher? Temperpedic mattresses? Or the wrapper of my favorite European ice cream bar…Magnum? Yep, all of those are made by Huntsman…along with a lot of other materials. The tour was great too because we stopped at each station and the engineers and managers explained to us the process and even did some demos. It was really neat seeing the production process and getting to ask questions that pertained to their different product lines.
After the tour we were treated to a fantastic lunch…Magnum bars included…my FAVORITE ice cream bar ever! It was a great tour. The Huntsman Chemical Corporation was really great to us!
After our Huntsman Chemical tour we went to AB InBev and took a tour of their production facility. We toured the production process for their Stella Artois beer and talked about how AB InBev is the largest beer producer in the world. The guy who took us around didn't have the best English, but he was still nice. It was fascinating to see the production process and how technical it was. There was one room where we passed a wall of computer screens with all kinds of information that these engineers were monitoring. There is two main steps in the beer production. One is taking the barley and heating it and the other involves cooling and letting the beer sit. It was crazy to see their bottling process, but unfortuantely it was a scheduled maintainence day when we were there. We did however get to see their bottle recycling and cleaning process. They collect and reuse the Stella Artois bottles and that was interesting. Afterward the tour we had a gentleman show us how to pour a glass of Stella Artois because it had a very technical way to wash the glass and cut the foam off the top to prep it for drinking. It was interesting to see an operation and production line, but would have been even better to see the bottling process in action.
EXPLORING BELGIUM, BRUSSELS
GRAND PLAISE
MANIKE DE PEIS
EATING MUSSELS IN BRUSSELS
BELGIUM WAFFLES
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