History of the company

Beginning of the plant

The company's history began in 1898. At that time, Moritz Bondy, a Prague-born Jewish ironware and horsehair merchant, decided to build a smelter to process copper and brass, the metals he already collected and traded. He chose the then insignificant village of Povrly mainly for logistical reasons -– it is located on an important railway line between Prague and Bodenbach and on the left bank of the River Labe, which could be used for transporting raw materials by boat. Bondy's son Maxmillian took over the construction of the copper works, i.e., the rolling mill and wire drawing mill, and founded the company KUPFERWEKRE ÖESTERREICH, translated as COPPER PLANT AUSTRIA, with its headquarters in Prague.

Boom of the plant in the first decade

Both industrialization and electrification, which offered great sales opportunities, allowed the factory to develop rapidly. The first production started in 1901 and during the first decade the company built a rivet factory with a rivet packing plant, a sheet rolling mill and a tube drawing mill. Production of brass and aluminium products began in 1907 and 1909, respectively. The customer base grew and by the end of the decade the company was supplying products to most of the major European countries.

Further development and WWI

The plant continued to develop successfully in the years that followed: It extended the backgrondelle for blue collars and tube drawing, expanded the pickling plant and the aluminium smelter was commissioned in 1913. The factory produced copper, brass, aluminium and iron products - whether sheets, strips, wires, tubes or rods - to customer specifications. During the First World War, all production was subordinated to war supplies. Where capacity was low, the factory continued to expand, for example by purchasing the existing Ringhoffer Copper and Brass Works in Kamenitz (first equipment and then buildings in 1922). The construction of houses for the workers had also begun and continued for 5 years after the war.

Post-war years and first crisis

Following declaration of independent Czechoslovakia, the plant then called KUPFERWEKRE BÖHMEN was included in the system of Czechoslovakian industry, and changed its name to Měďárna Čechy in 1919. The wartime production boom and interest in non-ferrous semi-finished products continued. The buying up of further land and premises and the expansion of production were briefly halted in 1929-1930 when the first signs of the economic crisis appeared and sales of the products declined. In spite of this, the company completed new plants in 1934, namely a new bar mill and a tube mill.

Under German occupation

In 1940, under German occupation, the company was liquidated because it was Jewish. The appointed commissioner closed down the company in 1943 when it was forced to surrender its trade licence and was erased from the commercial register, but the plant continued to operate. However, plant production focused on the wartime use of iron and aluminium.

Post-war development of the plant

At the beginning of 1947, the factory was nationalized by presidential decree and changed its name to České válcovny kovů, n. p. In the post-war years, the main task was to repair the damage caused by the Second World War. The new development began in the 1950s with the construction of social facilities for employees and a training school for non-ferrous metalworking.

Blooming Povrly

In the 1960s and 1970s, the copper works employed over a thousand workers, most of whom were residents of Povrly. While the company focused on employee satisfaction, it also built new housing in two residential areas and a new elementary school. The construction of a local water reservoir, a football pitch and a lido with restaurant was associated with the company. Mr Jiří Svoboda, the former director of Kovohutě Povrly, still called Baťa of Povrly, was behind all this. At that time, the plant delivered its products in Czechoslovakia, as well as to Western Germany and Switzerland. In the 1960s, the company started the production of CuCr metallurgical products, in particular electrodes for spot welding. In the 1970s the plant ceased copper refining, wire drawing, extrusion, tube and bar drawing and concentrated on the production of rolled copper and brass products.

Later steps of the plant

In the following years, the development of the electro-technical industry shaped the character of the plant - continuous casting plant for brass strip and subsequent wroughing was put into operation, sheet metal forming line and rolling mill were also developed. In addition, social facilities for employees were modernized, a computer system was installed to help the company develop, and requirements for environmentally friendly production standards were increased.

Ahead of further transformations

Another important change took place in 2006 - Měď Povrly became a member of the MTX Group, gaining access to the latest technologies and markets and expanding further beyond the borders of the Czech Republic. After the crisis in 2009 due to the use of cheaper and lighter materials such as aluminium or galvanized sheet metal, the company changed its direction to the production of rollers and extrusions for the traditional and ammunition industry or fashion jewellery. In 2022, the company was renamed to Povrly Copper Industries.

The company is currently relying on the growing demand for copper materials associated with the development of electrical engineering and electromobility. In terms of reducing its environmental impact, the company is focusing on continuing its transition to a circular economy and modernizing its operations in general.