1st place
LAKUM – KTL, a.s. –surface treatment of metal products and metal production

2nd place
SERVISBAL OBALY s.r.o. – production of packaging: boxes, shipping boxes, insets, sacks

3rd place
J.P. PLAST, s. r.o. – production of plastic packaging and components used in blow moulding technology

“The opportunity that domestic companies have to work with multinational corporations is one of the biggest benefits of foreign direct investment, whose influx we intensively support,” commented Minister of Industry & Trade Milan Urban, and added: “Linkage with the supply chains of multinational corporations represents an exceptional opportunity especially for small- and medium-sized Czech companies. But winning the trust of foreign investors is not easy and the Czech companies that work with them and that we are honouring tonight had to demonstrate not only outstanding quality of production but also flexibility in negotiations.”

If a small company succeeds in winning a contract to supply any of the major companies operating on the European or world market it gets an excellent reference and often can secure sales of products for a number of years.

“In the past thanks to the support of Czech suppliers we gained invaluable experience in doing business with small- and medium-sized firms in the Czech Republic. For this reason we launched a whole host of new programmes in 2004 to support enterprise;starting next year we also want to honour those companies that submitted the best projects, for example, in the field of technological innovation and human resources,”said Radomil Novák, Chief Executive Officer of CzechInvest.

An entirely new award called “Entrepreneurial Project of the Year”will be conferred under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry & Trade. Projects of Czech entrepreneurs, supported by programmes co-financed by EU funds, can receive awards in 2006, for example, in these categories:

• Entrepreneurial project with greatest innovation potential
• Entrepreneurial development project of the year
• Supplier of the year

There will also bespecial awards for projects in the field of human resources development.

BENEŠ a LÁT, foundry and engineering plant a.s. (Prague – Průhonice) is a company whose roots go back to the time of the first Czechoslovak republic. They won the award for the contract concluded with Italian company Valeo Securezza Abitacolo to produce precision aluminium and zinc castings worth nearly 2 million dollars.

HERBACOS-BOFARMA, s.r.o. (Pardubice) is unique on the so-called Galenic market where it has more than 50% market share. The production program of this Pardubice company focuses on pharmaceutical, para-pharmaceutical and disinfection products.

JÄKL Karviná, a.s. was founded in 1918 and is our tradition producer of steel thin-walled welded tubes, sections and open sections. It won the award for its contract concluded with Fuji Kiko Japan and Fuji Koyo Czech worth more than 2 million dollars to produce precision tubes.

J.P. PLAST, s.r.o. (Kyjov) specializes in production of plastic packaging and components used in blow moulding technology. The year 2004 was pivotal for the company. It started series supplies for the automotive industry and invested into new modern technologies including building a new production facility, which brought with it the creation of new jobs.

LAKUM – KTL, a.s. (Frýdlant nad Ostravicí, Frýdek Místek) is a company that focuses on surface treatment of metal products and metal production. It works with major multinational players in the automotive and electrical industry. This year the company plans to start operation of a galvanic zincing line, which with its current production program represents a singular opportunity to provide comprehensive surface treatment in the scope required mainly by the auto industry.

MASSAG, a.s.(Bílovec, Nový Jičín) won the award for the contract with British company Clares Merchandise Handling Equipment to produce shopping trolleys and roll cages. This will be long-term cooperation worth on the order of millions of dollars.

OBZOR, manufacturing association of physically disabled people, Pilsenachieved noteworthy growth particularly in its production program of Bowden connectors and hoses.

SERVISBAL OBALY s.r.o. (Dobruška) is engaged in development and production of packaging. In 2004 it achieved dynamic growth in increase of revenue, added value and other indicators. With the assistance of Czech and foreign consultants provided under the Czech Supplier Development Programme the company prepared a very high-quality strategy.

SATREMA Int., a.s. (Prague) focuses on the field of development, production and sale of DC electric motors for passenger, freight and utility vehicles, and also special systems with applications in the automotive industry among others.

The Czech Supplier Development Programme has been run by CzechInvest since 1999. The objective is to intensify and strengthen contacts between domestic suppliers and multinational manufacturers already operating in the Czech Republic or planning to invest here. The main goal of the programme is to increase the competitiveness of Czech suppliers so that they may become partners for multinational companies, and also to help multinational manufacturers find new partners from the ranks of Czech suppliers.

CzechInvest’s database, which is freely accessible on the agency’s website, now has over 2000 Czech manufacturers/potential suppliers registered. CzechInvest assisted in concluding contracts last year worth in total 948.3 mil. CZK.