About Company

SPS Slatiňany is a company with a 100 years old tradition. It deals in custom-made utility superstructures for the transportation of liquids and in mounting these tanks onto lorry chassis of any category or make.

At Present

After privatisation in 1994, the SPS associates faced a serious problem of making up for the loss of the CMEA market and maintaining engineering production in Slatiňany. Their priority was to transform the company manufacturing scheme by expanding the range of its products and, especially, by adopting an improved approach to designing, technological procedures, organisation and manufacturing process.

Nowadays, SPS Slatiňany has about 110 employees and an annual turnover of 120 million Czech Crowns. Its core products include body work for handling liquids and for fire engines, mounted onto a range of chassis. SPS focuses on tailored solutions to suit its customers. Every year, the company makes 80 to 90 utility structures and provides all the required service, repairs and spare parts.

History

The company was established in 1899 by Messrs. Cilka and Trdlica as a factory for the manufacture of timber mills and woodworking machines. As these products did not sell well, the new owners of the company, Messrs. Černý and Němec, decided to go into fire pumps. The company experienced a boom in 1907 when it was purchased by Mr Smékal. At the time, its products ranged from fire pumps to fire engines and apparatuses for gymnastics, and it even built a number of cars. In 1937, when Mr. Smékal, the pioneer of fire-extinguishing appliances, died, the company came into the hands of Mr. Potůček. He annexed a weaving shop for fire hoses, extended the production and auxiliary floor-space and modernised the machinery. After the 1948 nationalisation, the factory was incorporated into SIGMA Olomouc, a state-owned company, as THZ (factory for fire-combating devices). There was another change in 1962, when it was incorporated into the national enterprise KAROSA Vysoké Mýto, and went into multiple manufacture of vehicles for communal purposes (about 330 a year) and produced major components for fire engines, fire pumps and military hardware.

In 1994, within a privatisation project, the factory was taken over by a company representing the successor in title of the original owner, and the company adopted the name of Strojírna Potůček Slatiňany (SPS).