History of the company

1993 – establishment of the company

Svatavské strojírny s.r.o. was established on 11 August 1993. Its activities started on 1 November 1993. After establishment, the company took over the compete maintenance and repair of mining rail vehicles and pumping equipment from Sokolovská uhelná, a.s. Thus, it followed up on the more than thirty years of expertise of its employees.

1997 – development of cooperation with Western European countries

Following a decline in mining activity, the company focused on customized engineering production. From 1997, cooperation with Western European countries increased due growing demand for cooperation.
The company’s strategic decision not to commit itself to the provision of services to Sokolovská uhelná, a.s. due to the termination of mining activity in the western part of the region proved correct. It ensured permanent growth of revenue, keeping employment at the level of 150 employees, thus ranking it as a medium-sized company and one of the largest in the region as regards mechanical engineering.
The company underwent complete restructuring, from a repair enterprise working entirely for Sokolovská uhelná, a.s. (the company was established by privatization of the maintenance department belonging to Sokolovská uhelná, a.s.) to a production engineering company cooperating with a number of important foreign companies. Over this period, it built up a position of a reliable high-quality supplier.

2000 – purchase of land plots and manufacturing areas

The achieved revenues allowed another strategic goal to be fulfilled – the purchase of land plots and manufacturing areas from Sokolovská uhelná, a.s., thus gaining independence in the sphere of manufacturing means.

2001 – buying into PLASTMETALCHEM, s.r.o.

On 27 February 2001, the company bought a share amounting to 55 % of the basic capital of PLASTMETALCHEM, s.r.o. based in Sokolov. This gave the mentioned company the chance to extend its range of services for trading partners in the sphere of engineering. Besides additional manufacturing areas and human potential, the main value of the company rests in its expertise and authorization to produce pressure cylinders and stainless weldments.

This capital participation subsequently underwent a process of changes concerning further buyout of up to 100 % of the share, but also the sale of shares in line with the effort to keep its status as a medium-sized enterprise and, in particular, to provide high-quality management of the company. This situation resulted in stabilisation of the capital participation of the business share at 24 %.

2002 – new hall

The capacity of the existing manufacturing areas was expanded by the construction of a new manufacturing hall, which was completed in the first quarter of 2002. Its operation brought about a significant expansion of the company’s manufacturing areas.

2006 – establishment of a laser cutting centre

In line with the expansion of the manufacturing capacities by the construction of a new manufacturing hall, investments gradually started to concentrate on internal equipment to achieve optimum utilization of the area, including the restoration of older, less efficient equipment. These investments were largely provoked by a decline in activities connected with the maintenance of rail vehicles and the transition to customized production, which increasingly focused on foreign customers.
One of the most important investment projects started as early as 2004 during research into potentialities for the support of small and medium-sized business enterprises from EU grant programmes. In 2005, an agreement was signed with the Karlovy Vary region concerning the project „Establishment of a Laser Cutting Centre“. This project included a new laser cutting machine and a new compressor station. Implementation of this project started at the turn of 2005 and 2006 with delivery of the machine units and the startup in 2006.
Some of the other important machinery investments include a horizontal CNC boring machine, a centre lathe, portal bridges, storage centre of technical gases, a forklift truck, welding units, a screw compressor, spraying equipment, etc.
In 2006, the company was granted the ISO 9001:2001 Quality Management System Certificate, gradual implementation of which had proceeded since 2003, and another important quality managment certification for welding pursuant to ČSN ISO 729-2 (in 2007, recertification pursuant to the new standard ČSN EN ISO 3834-2). Another important moment involved extension of the already granted certificate pursuant to DIN 6700-2 from the C2 to C1 category.

2008 – expansion of machinery

The competitive ability of the company under the increasingly demanding conditions in the engineering market was increased by extension of the machinery: a robotized welding site including several hand-operated welding units, a CNC milling centre, CNC lathe and CNC saw machine.

2010 – new information system

During the economic recession at the turn of 2008 and 2009, the company’s revenues dropped by more than 1/3. In 2010, orders slightly rose again. These orders required the purchase of new manufacturing equipment such as: a hydraulic four-roller sheet bending machine, a milling centre, a 3D coordinate measuring machine and complete overhaul and modernization of a large lathe.
In that year, a new information system was implemented. It incorporates modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, including planning of production under restricted capacities. At the same time, the computer and programme equipment was innovated, the speed of the LAN network increased, Wi-Fi hotspots were created, the transfer capacity of the Internet connection was increased, etc.

2013 – twenty years on the market

In 2013, the company celebrated twenty years on the market and at the same time, a change in executive director, when Ing. Vladimír Vacek took over from Ing. Josef Kubát.