Once the enterprise gets started, the company plans to repair sixty endoscopes per month. These will come to Prerov, Central Moravia, from hospitals throughout Europe. There are currently only two similar facilities in continental Europe for repairing Olympus endoscopes, in Paris and Hamburg.
“Olympus will create not quite sixty new jobs in a prestigious field in the Prerov region, which has long suffered from high unemployment. The company will offer work to local opticians, electrical engineers and graduates of universities in Olomouc and Brno,” says Roman Cermak, CEO of CzechInvest. “The company is bringing very strong know-how to the Czech Republic, and as such it was able to register in the Framework Programme for the Support of Technology Centres and Centres of Business Support Services.”
“The operation currently employs 25 people, though within nine months this number should grow to 58. Nine months is the maximum period for training new employees depending on the type of work to be performed. For example, cementing endoscopes is a highly specialised activity,” says Petr Hanzlik, director of the parent company Olympus C&S.
“There are several reasons for expanding our activities in Prerov, one of which is that we found numerous specialists here that are able to do this kind of work. An endoscope is a very complicated device composed of many digital, mechanical and optical parts. Our main priority is to ensure top quality, as an endoscope is introduced deep into the body and is very important for the work of doctors,” adds Luke Calcraft, president of Olympus Medical Systems Europe.
Olympus came to Prerov in 2003, establishing its European camera-repair centre. It has now added a service centre for Olympus medical devices for the whole of Europe. The company has invested CZK 30 million in the centre.
Lucie Kralova, spokesperson, phone: +420 296 342 538, lucie.kralova@czechinvest.org
Jiri Sochor, PR executive, phone: + 420 296 342 832, jiri.sochor@czechinvest.org
More about Olympus
Olympus, a Japanese multinational corporation, is one of the world’s largest producers of optical devices, cameras, medical equipment and information technologies. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the company employs more than 33,000 people. Olympus C&S spol. s r.o. as been operating in the Czech Republic since 1991. Olympus Services Facility Czech, s.r.o., a maintenance centre for Olympus electronics, has been in operation since 2003. The company is also the world’s most important manufacturer of endoscopes.