70 years since the establishment of AŽD - achievements in the domestic market, abroad and forced organizational changes

The AŽD company is celebrating 70 years since its establishment this year. The company has changed significantly during that time, but it still remains in the hands of Czech owners and should continue to do so. A stable dominant inland position, expansion abroad, expansion of road telematics and especially cooperation with an US company in the field of nanotechnology forced the company's management to switch to a holding structure.

Simplifying management and streamlining communication between the parent company and more than twenty subsidiaries are the main reasons for the already initiated process of changing the organizational structure of the AŽD group. After its completion in 2025, the owners of this Czech company expect to ensure the continued successful development and prosperity of the entire group, its further expansion, as well as greater stability and flexibility.

AŽD has been in the hands of Czech owners since privatization in 1993, and information about the sale of the company or its parts has turned out to be odd. The expansion of operations on the domestic market and expansion into neighbouring countries, especially Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, but also Bulgaria, Croatia and many others, has brought the company to the European level.

The company also owns two test lines that are integrated into the railway infrastructure of the Czech Republic. While regular passenger traffic was fully restored on the Plum railway within the U10 line (Litoměřice horni nádraží – Lovosice – Most), AŽD is now preparing conditions for the operation of autonomous trains and the AŽD Competence Centre to support Czech university education on the Kopidlnka (Kopidlno – Dolní Bousov line).

"The expansion of the company's business and the associated changes in the organizational structure of the AŽD group prove to be necessary and logical. We certainly do not make changes to sell the company, but quite the opposite. In the future, we want to be even more competitive, not only on a national scale, to which the management mechanisms of the AŽD group must also correspond. We are convinced that after the change of the organizational structure is completed, the AŽD Group will be a stable Czech company that will not only pay taxes properly in our country, but we will reinvest the company's profits in research and development, in cooperation with universities and secondary schools, and in technological projects," says CEO of AŽD Zdeněk Chrdle.

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