In addition to manufacturing capabilities and an R&D centre, HELLA, a global manufacturer of lights and electronic components for cars, is now building a state-of-the-art testing laboratory in the Ostrava region. The lab will be located at CTPark Ostrava Hrabová, where advanced machines will be simulating the real-life operating environment of HELLA products throughout their entire life cycle.

The Czech Republic once again ranks high in the rating of the 47 best manufacturing destinations. Thanks to a good score in all criteria such as operating costs, labour, political and economic risk and the ability to bounce back after the coronavirus crisis, the country came fifth globally and first in Europe. Since 2016 when the Czech Republic was included in Cushman & Wakefield’s Manufacturing Risk Index for the first time, it has been ranked among the best manufacturing destinations on a regular basis.

Geis Logistics Hungary Kft., the local representative of the German-based transport and logistics company has signed a lease agreement for a custom-built production facility at CTPark Vecsés, near Budapest. The Geis Group will store Knorr-Bremse Systeme products in the new almost 16,000 square meters logistics facility with extra features related to the braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles produced by Knorr-Bremse Group.

Hungarian state-owned NIPÜF Group has completed another sales transaction with the sale of a nearly 3 ha plot in the Inpark Martonvásár industrial park, located southwest of Budapest. A Hungarian chemical company will build a 4,000 sqm production hall on the property by 2022.

Amphenol, a major producer of electronic and fibre optic connectors, cable and interconnect systems, is relocating its production plant within Ostrov in the Karlovy Vary Region. Panattoni Park Ostrov North was created by revitalizing the devastated site after the Škoda Pilsen trolleybus production plant, one of the largest brownfields in the Czech Republic.

Some companies are choosing to relocate production plants from Asia to Poland to diversify business activity and shorten supply chains. On the other hand, western firms are setting up factories in Poland to bring operating costs down and take advantage of a range of benefits with which individual regions want to attract investors, say experts from Cresa Poland.

Optim Project Management has been appointed to project manage the construction of a new Continental electronics assembly and manufacturing facility in Novi Sad.

In the new Panattoni Pilsen Digital Park on Pilsen’s Bory terraces, a fully automated plant for the production of 100% recyclable beverage cans will be built in the first phase. It will be used by American company Ball, a world leader in this industry. The investment will create almost 200 new jobs for a qualified workforce. The first building will occupy a third of the planned area. Ball is also setting up its own development centre in the same location.

On behalf of a German client, JLL’s Industrial Agency and Capital Markets Teams cooperated to sell the real estate component for a unique medical production operation in the Central Bohemian region of the Czech Republic in a 10-year sale & leaseback transaction. The asset also includes over 10,000 sqm of land with development potential.

The third fund of Czech investor Arete Group has acquired a modern, highly specialized production facility with a research and development centre and with the potential for further development in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The value of the investment exceeded €10 million.