Engel has welcomed president of the Czech Republic to its plant in Kaplice, as he took a tour around South Bohemia.
Controversial President Miloš Zeman paid a visit to Engel along with Ivana Stráská, the South Bohemia Regional Governor.
He praised the worldwide leading producer of injection-moulding machines for its sustained success and continued investment in South Bohemia, just North of the border with Engel’s home, Austria.
The Kaplice plant is being enlarged significantly, with Engel’s investment of €46 million (£40 million) to expand manufacturing capacities and new technologies at its South Bohemian plant. Two hundred and fifty new jobs are being created at the site. With a workforce of more than 870 people, Engel Strojírenská is already one of the largest employers in the region.
ENGEL
President Miloš Zeman and the South Bohemia Region Governor Ivana Stráská with the two directors of ENGEL Strojírenská, Gerhard Lumetsberger (left) and Peter Jungwirth (right).
Peter Jungwirth, Commercial Director, said: “ENGEL Strojírenská is not a manufacturing outpost, but plays a key role as a competence centre for sheet-metal processing and electrical fitting within the group’s global manufacturing network.
“For ourselves and all the employees here on site, President Zeman’s visit is a great honour. Our employees were delighted that the President took so much time to answer their questions and on several occasions praised Engel’s positive economic development. That is extremely motivating for our company.”
President Zeman took interest in Engel’s active commitment to apprenticeships. Since 2015, Engel has run an apprenticeship programme for technical professions in Kaplice and has set up its own apprentice workshop for the purpose. For the theoretical instruction, Engel cooperates with two vocational schools in the region.
The President, who was Czech’s first directly elected President in 2013, held a short talk on economic issues with Engel Directors Jungwirth and Gerhard Lumetsberger.
He then took questions from factory staff about the possibility of a motorway to Kaplice from Prague, and the future direction of the European Union and the role of the Czech Republic in its development. He has been openly critical of the European Union in the past, by comparing the EU to a train in an old Soviet-era joke, ‘where Brezhnev says: “comrades, if the train stops, we shall close the curtain and imitate that the train is still going on”.’
President Zeman's popularity reflects a growing dissatisfaction in the Czech Republic with the post-communist settlement and a desire to return to the certainty of strongman politics. He has said Czech only remains in the EU ‘because of money, money, money’.
