The origins of Secrecy

GRACIEUX Co., Ltd. operates as an image consultant, a seminar lecturer, and a junior college and vocational school lecturer based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. In 2010, CEO Abe held a charity gallery to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa, whom he respects, and delivered donations to Mother House, a facility for Mother Teresa's children in Bangladesh. This was the trigger for the birth of Secrecy.

Leather products factory area OLD Dhaka

Motherhouse is located in an area called OLD Dhaka, where the surrounding area was a leather manufacturing factory. The bag I ordered as a keepsake became the prototype for the current body and hip bag. I talked to a factory owner who wanted to do business with Japan, and I thought that I would do whatever I could, however small, but in the same year, my mother died suddenly, and I had to care for my father who had collapsed from the shock, and then the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011 (fortunately, the tsunami stopped at the house next door and my house was safe), and I was unable to carry out my normal work due to a series of difficulties.

Secrecy’s founding and difficult journey

After overcoming these difficulties, we founded Secrecy in 2015 and started our journey as a manufacturer. However, we faced many setbacks. At the first factory, all the products delivered had worn linings and were unsellable, and at the second factory, all the products had defective metal fittings and were unsellable. We continued to face many problems and thought about stopping manufacturing in Bangladesh.

Received the "Women's Entrepreneur Special Award"

In 2018, she created balloon bags and other Made in SENDAI products, and competed in the Business Grand Prix hosted by Sendai City, winning the Special Female Entrepreneur Award with the theme of "Sendai's brand throughout Japan and the world." This award gave her the determination to move forward and also inspired her to take on the challenge overseas.

Meeting with the female owner, Zinnia

I met Zinnia, the current owner of the factory. Bangladesh (Islamic) is a male dominated society, so this is one of the few small factories owned by women. Believing in her passion and humanity, we resumed our work with Bangladesh with the goal of growing together. However, we were forced to take a period of self-restraint due to the spread of infection shortly after. During that time, we had various problems other than the products, so we revised our values and received advice from Japanese craftsmen to support us in improving our skills, and as a result, we are now able to create products that we can be confident in.

The future of Secrecy

Currently, the local staff are working hard every day with the theme of creating products of JAPAN quality. Due to the current social situation, the factory is in a difficult situation, but we would like to contribute to the factory staff, however small our contribution may be, and contribute to manufacturing in Bangladesh by providing products of JAPAN quality. We are working with the desire to achieve our goal in partnership with the female owner, Zinnia.