DENSO Sales Canada, Inc., an automotive sales and aftermarket distribution unit in DENSO, was a Gold Corporate Sponsor of the 2019 Japan Festival CANADA. The annual festival, which is the largest Japanese cultural event in North America, promotes Japan’s contemporary and traditional culture, food, technology and fashion. This year’s event, held Aug. 24-25, in Mississauga, Ontario, focused on celebrating 90 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Canada.
DENSO was founded in 1949 in Kariya, Japan, but the company also has a long and rich history in Canada. That history begins almost 50 years ago when DENSO established DENSO Sales Canada in Mississauga to focus on aftermarket sales. As it happens, Kariya and Mississauga have been sister cities for decades. After the creation of DENSO Sales Canada, DENSO built a thermal manufacturing facility in Guelph, Ontario, which just celebrated 20 years of advancing mobility and providing quality jobs to the local community.
Today, DENSO Sales Canada is a vital facet of DENSO’s distribution and customer service operations, and the Guelph facility employs more than 600 employees who support the production of important products like HVAC units, radiators, condensers, engine fans and cooling modules. DENSO also opened the Montréal Innovation Lab earlier this year to accelerate R&D in advanced areas, such as artificial intelligence, within the automotive industry.
“DENSO has had a strong presence and deep commitment to Canada and its local communities for much time now. As a global mobility supplier with Japanese roots, we’re proud to support an event that celebrates the close cultural and business ties between these two great nations,” said Kenichiro Ito, senior executive officer for DENSO Corporation and chief executive officer of DENSO’s North American headquarters.