Bang & Olufsen, a manufacturer of high-end audio-visual technology, has its only foreign production facility in this city in North Moravia. The company is investing 16.5 million euros in construction of a new factory and will employ up to 200 workers.

“The company began production in rented space on the premises of Tatra Koprivnice in autumn 2004 and employed 114 people,” said Tomas Hruda, CEO of CzechInvest. “At the same time, however, construction was begun on a completely new facility in the Koprivnice Vlcovice industrial zone, into which the company moved in February and is now beginning production.”

Successful sales of Bang & Olufsen products all over the world have made it necessary to expand production capacity in Central Europe, according to the company.

“From the beginning it was our goal, not only to establish a production facility, but also to include a fully integrated development department,” said Michael Jensen, general director of the Koprivnice plant. “Therefore, we conducted our search carefully, over a long period of time, before deciding to locate our only foreign branch in the Czech Republic.”

The company hopes to launch a technology center in April, where development of audio, video and telecommunications products will be conducted within a five-year period, Jensen said. Both production and the technology center will work closely with the production and development departments in Struer, Denmark.

The company is investing more than 2 million euros in establishing the technology center, and by 2010 the center will employ 70 workers, primarily with university education. The center is being established in close cooperation with the Science and Technology Park in Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic.