The British Pilkington Group founded the company Vidriería Argentina S.A. on 7 April 1938 near Buenos Aires. The new company started its activities on a 40-hectareon a site in Llavallol. This was the first Pilkington furnace outside of the United Kingdom, marking the real beginning of the sheet glass industry in Argentina. The plant manufactured the country’s first patterned sheet glass in December of that year. The company’s first workers were former rural field hands, and bricklayers who also erected the factory’s first buildings.