1. Like Bill Gates
Did you know that like the founder of Microsoft we also started our business in a garage? We took the first attempts at developing a formulation for high-efficiency foam in a garage in Świdnica. Our goal was to create a foam that was more efficient than that available in the market. In this way Tytan 65, now an iconic product, came to existence.
2. First business trips
In the early 1990s, Selena's commercial representatives traveled by train or even hitchhiked to meet customers! This is because initially we only had two company cars – Cinquecento 700 Van. We remember a case where a customer forgot to refuel and the car had to be pushed 8 km from Selena's factory to a gas station.
3. Language challenges
Many a time was Selena faced with a communication barrier in the area of construction vocabulary. In the mid-1990s, when the company's employees were being trained by a French supplier of adhesives, one of the participants translated the meeting from French into English, and another – from English into Polish. They used several dictionaries in the process. As a result, the employees thought they were being trained on adhesives for parquet flooring, although in fact the training concerned ... self-levelling compounds!
4. Flood in Carina
Selena's products did their job even in the face of a natural disaster! During the flood in 1997, employees of our Carina factory in Siechnice near Wrocław, unprepared to deal with disasters, secured their windows and doors with Selena’s sealants. In retrospect, this was a mistake – in such situations it is better to let the water flow through as it causes more damage when it stays inside. At Carina, the product turned out to be so effective that it prevented any water from escaping, which made the floor wrinkle like a sheet of paper.
5. Visit to the World Cup
In 2002, we took our clients to the World Football Championship in Korea. A year earlier, when entering the Korean market with a joint venture, we decided to create a unique loyalty program. Among its features, it offered the opportunity to participate in the prestigious football festival. Result? A total of 140 employees and Selena's most committed clients could enjoy the games live during the most popular sports event in the world!
6. World record in assembly at heights
Two Selena assemblers and at the same time enthusiasts of mountain expeditions decided that a high-altitude application would be the best test for the construction chemicals they used. For one of their expeditions in 2011, the assemblers, whose ambition was to climb the Seven Summits, took ...... a window along with the Tytan Professional foam to install it in a rock wall on Aconcagua (6962 m above sea level) in the Andes.
7. Adventure at the border
Once customs officials mistook our products for smuggled goods! A full trunk of Tytan gun foams aroused an alarm at a Balkan border crossing. Finally, the commander of the fire squad recognized the polyurethane foam in the cargo and saved our employee from trouble. As a thank you, the employee did a quick training on how to apply Tytan products with a foam gun.
8. Selena breaks the Guinness Record
The largest ceramic tile sculpture was created in 2013 at the PSB Group fair in Kielce. Ten tilers used the Tytan GEA adhesive to put tiles on the symbol of Kielce – the Golden Crown, a sculpture 3.16 m high and 3.50 m wide. They used almost 2,100 tiles in the process!
9. Creativity in the lab
One of the employees of our Orion plant, after completing work on the development of colored foams, also wanted to devise scented foams. To this end, he added soap to one of the foams. Much to the lab technician’s dismay, the can – in which foam reacted with water – began to run around the room like a shaken can of the popular soda! Fortunately, the can’s crazy dance did not cause any serious damage.
10. The COOL-R® coating lowered the outside temperature of a roof by more than 500C
With the help from innovative solutions of Selena Group – a comprehensive renovation was made of the 19k m2 roof of the Porto Alegre airport in Brazil. Waterproofing problems have been eliminated, and thanks to the innovative COOL-R® coating that combines the cooling and waterproofing function, the roof’s external temperature has been reduced from 86.40C to 34.50C. In this way, the building's heat balance changed favorably, which reduced electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.