KEY MILESTONES 2021
When DAKO-CZ commemorated two centuries since the establishment of the company in 2016, it was hard for anyone to know what kind of journey this traditional Třemošnice company would take in the next five years. The manufacturer of brake systems and components for rail vehicles has undergone a major transformation, breaking the magic threshold of billions in sales and it is on the way to further growth. Today, DAKO-CZ is one of the most successful members of the Czechoslovak Group holding company.
In accordance with the strategic plan, we established the DAKO-CZ development office in Prague last year. At the moment, we have 2 Embedded Software developers, FEM calculators and a mechanical brake design. We use the experience of new colleagues for partial development activities, however, our ambition is to acquire competencies to solve an independent development task. We intend to further develop the team, both in number and expertise, and use it to solve new development projects for our customers.
Our company started to produce DAKO brake components for another 22 six-car underground trains at the end of 2021. The acquired contract is the second option for previously realized contracts from 2013-2015 and 2018-2021. The brake components will be fitted with Inspiro platform sets marked C2 from Siemens. DAKO-CZ is a traditional supplier of Siemens, almost 450 underground trains equipped with brake components from our company’s production have been used worldwide.
We started supplying brake equipment for a total of 760 LHB cars to India in June this year. The contract builds on already implemented projects from 2015. DAKO-CZ supplied a total of 1,630 sets of brake equipment for the Indian company Escorts Limited Faridabad for several hundred million crowns. The Indian market has accounted for more than a fifth of the company’s total turnover in recent years.
TATRAVAGÓNKA a.s. sold its 49% share in DAKO-CZ, a.s. to the majority owner, the Czechoslovak Group (CSG) holding company which has controlled 51% so far. CSG, the industrial technology group of the Czech entrepreneur Michal Strnad, thus became the sole owner of the company which develops and manufactures brake systems and components for rail vehicles, and in its company in Třemošnice employs almost 600 workers.
In August, we established a new subsidiary in Ostrava – DAKO-CZ MACHINERY, a.s. The company’s task is to expand the production capacity of the parent company DAKO-CZ, a.s.
Last year, despite the coronavirus pandemic, our company was able to build a new assembly hall. Thanks to a comprehensive logistics project, which was implemented at full capacity, it reorganized production to minimize unnecessary operations and transfers of materials and parts within the production process. At the same time, a new service centre was opened – DAKO SERVICE, which deals with repairs of worn brakes and components from our production. In recent years, the company has invested several hundred million crowns in production.
Hand in hand with this, there was a need to recruit new employees for both production and technical positions. Due to the lack of technically educated workers on the market, the company decided to open a DAKO academy where it educates assembly workers and workers in the machining shop.
DAKO-CZ received an order from the railway division of Siemens Mobility for the supply of brake components for 94 new 9-piece underground sets of the London Piccadilly line. This is the largest contract we have ever received from Siemens. It will be implemented in 2022-2025 in connection with other options – until 2070. The total value of the basic supply of brake components for 846 underground cars intended for the Piccadilly line is around CZK 100 million.
Since the middle of this year, our company has been producing hydraulic brake systems, including steering for 27 low-floor 4-chassis trams manufactured by the Polish company Modertrans Poznań. The new Moderus Gamma trams, type LF 07 AC, will be deployed in Wroclaw, Poland. The project will be implemented by 2023.
To increase the reliability of deliveries and more flexible implementation of repairs, we established a new strategic department of the main production. The main task of the department is to provide service and repairs of worn brake systems and components from our workshop. At the moment, the departments are established at DAKO-CZ in Třemošnice and DAKO-CZ SERVICE in Most. We are already building another department at the new DAKO-CZ MACHINERY branch in Ostrava.
DAKO-CZ celebrates its victory. For the second time, the DAKO-CZ company from Třemošnice took part in the Pardubice Region Company of the Year competition and any of the ten nominated finalists could fought it down last year.
DAKO-CZ is celebrating. The Třemošnice manufacturer of brake systems and components for rail vehicles commemorates 205 years since its establishment. On this occasion, we invited our important business partners and customers to the company’s headquarters and to a gala evening which took place on Thursday, 4 November 2021 at the Jezerka Congress Hotel in Seč. On Friday, the invited guests experiences something extraordinary: a ride of the renovated by the legendary Slovak Missile which took guests directly to the company’s premises, where an excursion to the new production and storage facilities had been prepared. The Slovak missile was brought to DAKO-CZ by a sister company of the Czechoslovak Group, Tatra Trucks from Kopřivnice, in support of the anniversary celebration and the promotion of this national cultural monument.
The celebrations of the 205th anniversary of the establishment of DAKO-CZ, which took place on Thursday, 4 November at the Jezerka Congress Hotel in Seč, also had a charitable dimension. We have been supporting little Nela Kočárníková from Ronov nad Doubravou with financial donations since 2018 when our employees started this project. Nelinka was born with hydrocephalus. At the ceremony, where important customers and business partners of the company were invited, Nela managed to raise a total amount of almost 100,000 crowns. Both the company itself and the guests of the event contributed to it.
Years of prosperity and fast growth have brought DAKO-CZ recognition and success. Last year, our company won the title of the Company of the Year of the Pardubice Region and did not lose even in the national finals of the competition. In the competition of the best companies from all 14 regions of the Czech Republic, DAKO-CZ reached the super final among the five most successful companies.
