Conti’s Puchov, Slovakia plant celebrates 20th anniversary

On 4 September Continental celebrated 20 years since the firm’s Puchov, Slovakia truck tyre plant became part of the company. A special event was hosted at the plant by Ladislav Rosina, Plant Manager Continental Matador Truck Tires s.r.o., with the participation of the management of the Tire Division, the local leaders and employees who remembered together the achievements of the local team. Since then, manufacturing upgrade investments of over 630 million euros have been made, resulting in an almost ten-fold increase in production volume to around 2.9 million tyres. During the same period the team has almost quadrupled.

Nikolai Setzer, Head of the Tire Division and Member of the Executive Board congratulated the team at the event: “‘Tyre business is people business’ and this tyre plant has added consistently milestones of success in the implementation course of our Tire Division’s Vision 2025, being a backbone for our tire business, especially in the EMEA region. All this has been possible because of you, our employees. Congratulations to your twenty year anniversary and keep up your Passion-to-Win also in the future!”

Christian Koetz, Head of Business Unit Commercial Vehicle Tires, emphasized in his speech the agility and flexibility of the Puchov plant in supporting EMEA and other markets. He also added: “The plant and its employees have always been open to support innovations and innovative products. I always appreciated the long lasting high-performance of the plant and its employees to satisfy the customers’ requirements not only in quality, but also in volume, coverage and costs.”

Bernhard Trilken, Head of Manufacturing & Logistics Tires, stated: “Since the beginning the truck tyre plant team aimed high. Committed employees with strong team spirit, goal achievement orientation, and continuous improvement were always the pillars of the plant’s high-performance and long lasting stability.” The “quality first” mindset of the employees had been awarded with the Quality Award for highest KPI level consecutively in 2016 and 2017. Also the capability of the team to manage extreme levels of complexity has brought further business to Puchov, both in Commercial Vehicle Tires and in Passenger and Light Truck Tires, a Technology Center and ContiTech, making Continental the biggest employer in Puchov region with currently around 4,700 employees.

The 20 year anniversary event concluded with a speech from Ladislav Rosina, Plant Manager Continental Matador Truck Tires s.r.o., who thanked all employees as well as the honored guests for their contribution to the success and achievements of the plant as well as celebrating the success story of the truck tire plant Puchov together.

20 years ago Continental was searching for a strategic partner to build up a highly efficient manufacturing plant for truck tyres, and Matador was searching a partner to maintain its truck tyre business. Activities of both parties resulted in a formation agreement signed on 16 September 1998 establishing a joint venture company: Continental Matador s.r.o., renamed in 2007 as Continental Matador Truck Tires s.r.o. The truck tyre plant in Puchov produces a third of the total truck and bus tyre volume of Continental each year.