Industrial zone Kolín Ovčáry comes alive with new investors 15. 11. 2015

Industrial Kolín – it is a natural expression which simply and clearly characterizes our town. Certainly it can be more specified with other and other characteristics which perfectly express the nature of Kolín, however, there is no doubt about the industrial ´heart´. In Kolín there are several traditional factories which tradition goes back to 19th century. The turbulent 20th century brought both a period of dynamic growth and gradual stagnation of Kolín industry. Two wars, the first republic, directed economy of real socialism but also the need connected with economy transformation after 1989 to finish or reduce production in considerable number of factories. Therefore the establishment of industrial zone Kolín Ovčáry more than ten years ago is the natural point in town development, it is an attempt to refresh industrial life, production and work places. The attempt to refresh local economy.

No matter how we look back at the building of industrial zone Kolín Ovčáry, we must perceive its existence and respect it – either we belong to those who sadly remember beautiful fields full of grain or those who found possibility of employment. Since 2010 the current town management has been trying to create functional strategy which would bring maximal profit to our region. We try to promote the industrial zone in all possible ways – we created professional promotion materials in foreign languages, we closely cooperate with government agency CzechInvest, we take part in academic conferences, we are devoted to own economic diplomacy and we directly address potential foreign applicants. All this has brought provable success. The last one is the arrival of Japanese company Tsubakimoto to Kolín zone. The sale of the plot to ownership of the above-mentioned company will bring 16 million Czech crowns to Kolín. The building of the plant for production of cabling sets to cars will start next year and in two years the production will start running most effectively. In the first phase, the company plans to employ about 50 people and during the full production about 90 people. We have already started negotiations with the labour Office. Thanks to the activity of the director Ing.Máslík, the Labour Office in cooperation with Tsubakimoto representatives will try to tip suitable employees in our region. This presents another significant task of the industrial zone – to decrease unemployment rate in Kolín region.

However, Tsubakimoto is not the only applicant. Two significant foreign investors (whose names cannot be announced so far) are in the decision-making process whether Kolín is the most suitable location for them. We believe that in this case we will be successful negotiators. The next part of our strategy was and has been to motivate local companies to think about buying a plot in the industrial zone and building a modern plant. Also this has been successful and in most cases it leads to production increase and subsequently creation of new work places. Currently we have been negotiating about purchase of plot to Kolín company ServisControl. This company should build a modern plant in the industrial zone within the next year. This should extend the production of this company which was till today concentrated in current seat of the company in Havlíčkova street. The main activity of this company, as described on their webpages, is ´complete service support, delivery of projects including cabling and application software and sale of components for industrial automation´.

It can be seen that Kolín industrial zone comes alive. It is our wish that this fact becomes a symbol of total improvement of Kolín economy. And Kolín and its citizens definitely deserves it after period of indebtedness and limited development possibilities. 

Vít Rakušan