DAKO-CZ, a manufacturer of braking systems and components for rail vehicles from Třemošnice, East Bohemia, has defended the Czech Business Superbrands award for 2023. The judges were convinced by the economic results, growth and new projects of the company with more than two hundred years of tradition. The only Czech manufacturer of brakes for rolling stock has been growing continuously, doubling its sales over the past four years and breaking the two billion mark in 2022 for the first time in history.
DAKO-CZ is growing, both on the Czech market and abroad. The company, which is wholly owned by the Czechoslovak Group, the industrial-technology holding company of Czech industrialist Michal Strnad, has in recent years established the assembly company DAKO-CZ MACHINERY in Ostrava, operated the company DAKO-CZ SERVICE in Most in North Bohemia and has also taken over the company TRANSELCO-CZ. Together with the parent company DAKO-CZ, a division CSG Rail was created within the Czechoslovak Group holding.
Foreign expansion is driven by activities in India, where in the past year DAKO-CZ has established two joint ventures with leading domestic manufacturers. With a key player in the local market, Medha Servo Drives, it has established MEDHA DAKO-CZ Pvt. Ltd. based in Hyderabad. This company focuses on the supply of complete and advanced braking systems for the new EMU, metro and locomotive coaches for the Indian Railways. Kolkata-based JWL DAKO-CZ India Ltd has been formed with Jupiter Wagons, the number two in the freight car manufacturing market.
"The establishment of a subsidiary, DAKO-CZ India, which will cover our Indian activities, is in the final stages of preparation. We have been generating a significant percentage of our turnover in the Indian market for several years and the potential of the Indian market is huge. That is also why our sales manager participated in the business mission of the Confederation of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, which accompanied the trip of Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský to India," says Lukáš Andrýsek, Chairman of the Board of Directors of DAKO-CZ.
"Although our company is well known and established in the railway industry, we highly appreciate awards such as Czech Business Superbrands. With this prestigious award, the DAKO brand is getting stronger again," adds Lukáš Andrýsek. He reminds us of the fact that DAKO-CZ is a company operating in the B2B segment, so its products are not directly encountered by end-customers. Defending an award such as Czech Business Superbrands in this area is therefore far more complicated and more valuable for the company.
DAKO-CZ is not only active on the Indian market. The company exports more than 70 percent of its production. One of the most prestigious projects is undoubtedly the supply of brake components for Siemens Mobility's metro sets for the Piccadilly line of the London Underground. In addition to Siemens, DAKO-CZ has long cooperated with companies such as Talgo, Stadler Rail, Tatravagónka Poprad and Modertrans Poznan. In the Czech Republic, for example, it cooperates with the Škoda Group.
It is for the Škoda Group that this year it will deliver hydraulic brake units, including steering for 30 29T3 tram sets which will be deployed in Bratislava. The company DAKO-CZ won an interesting order in Brazil, where it will supply hydraulic brake units for the autonomously controlled air-powered Aeromovel trains that will serve passengers at São Paulo airport. DAKO-CZ's mid-term goals include an effort to penetrate the North American market.
In order to be successful in the long term, the company invests massively in the development of the company in amounts exceeding CZK 100 million. Last year, for example, the company presented a revolutionary electromechanical disc brake unit at InnoTrans, which is part of our DAKO Brake By Wire concept. Its principle is that neither compressed air nor oil management is needed to stop trains.
In the field of development, the company benefits from a strong design school, which was founded in Třemošnice seventy years ago by Josef Daněk who is the author of more than 40 patents and who is referred to as the father of the DAKO brake. To strengthen its know-how, the company cooperates with a number of universities not only in the Czech Republic but also in Slovakia. The DAKO brand, thanks to awards such as the Czech Business Superbrands or the Company of the Year of the Pardubice Region, which it received in 2021, has been steadily growing and strengthening in recent years.
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