Most Significant Investor of the Year – Manufacturing Industry

23 Jun. 2009 | CzechInvest, AFI | First place in the category Most Significant Investor of the Year – Manufacturing Industry went to IVAX, a member of the TEVA group, which is building a practically completely new plant for the production of solid drugs, i.e. tablets, in the former Galena complex in Opava at a cost of more than CZK 1 billion. IVAX currently produces liquid drugs. Most of the new plant’s production will be exported to the United States.

“Today you can build a plant practically anywhere, but an investment isn’t about the building or factory and machines; an investment and efficient production involve high-quality people and effective processes that people create. Investments should be made where there is good infrastructure and a skilled workforce, all of which we found in Opava, in the Czech Republic,” explains Jiří Urbanec, CEO of IVAX, a member of the TEVA group.

A similar plant could have been built in Opava fifty years ago. “Of course, at that time central planning decided otherwise, but the company’s management left a vacant and prepared space in the centre of the complex in case the situation changed. And the prepared infrastructure and vacant space in the middle of a properly operating enterprise means that fifty years later, this plant is finally being built,” adds Urbanec.

“Only state-of-the-art technology, the world’s fastest lines and the most efficient machines will be used in the new plant. The aim is to maximally limit production costs by using the best technology, so that tablets made in the European Union cost the same to produce as if they came from a country much farther to east with much lower labour costs,” explains Urbanec.

Second place in category Most Significant Investor of the Year – Manufacturing Industry was presented to Panasonic Automotive Systems Czech, s.r.o. of Pardubice, which focuses on manufacturing car radios for all major automakers operating in Europe. With more than 1,000 employees, the company produces nearly two million car radios annually. Thanks to the company’s investment in 2008, its rate of production will further increase.

Vítkovice Hammeringtook the third-place honours in the category Most Significant Investor of the Year – Manufacturing Industry. This is a new company in which production of steel forgings is gradually being concentrated in Vítkovice. The company’s investment in this enterprise alone will exceed CZK 1 billion. In recent years Vítkovice has been investing massively in the expansion of its production and in the regeneration of the company’s entire historical complex, including renovation of technical and cultural monuments.