| 1873 | Simon, Evers & Co. is officially entered in the Commercial Register at the district court of the City of Hamburg on the 2nd of January 1873 with the Hanseatic commercial register number: 13453. Therefore being officially the oldest German company in Japan still operating today. August Evers worked on site in Japan and Julius Simon returned to Germany to run the Hamburg office. |
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| 1874 | The trading company of Simon, Evers & Co. — from now on also known as SECO — moves into its first offices in the port of Yokohama. |
| 1876 | Manufactured goods, pharmaceuticals and chemicals are the first commodities to be shipped by Simon, Evers & Co. from Yokohama and Kobe to Europe. SECO’s German export activities began with wire nails, chemicals, paints and pharmaceuticals, and in return soon also Japanese textiles, rice, various other natural products and gold made the journey back to Germany on board the merchant sailing ships. |
| 1890 | SECO quickly grew into bigger business, exporting for example, small power plants with water turbines or petrol engines, as well as the equipment necessary for electrification of entire cities. Other businesses also started at this time and continue until today, like paper and machinery for sugar production. |