“Our customers’ increased demand for high-quality, advanced products has led us this year to focus our main efforts on the digitization and automation of all workstations that do not require specialized craftsmanship. As early as 2021, the group will therefore see further significant shifts toward Industry 4.0,” said Karel Ježek, director and owner of the Mikov Group.
Since 2018, when a new owner with purely Czech capital took over the company, annual sales of cutlery have increased from 25 to 42 million, with modern knives—which require a high degree of craftsmanship and technological sophistication—accounting for an ever-increasing share of that total.
In 2020, Mikov launched a number of new products—the Taurus and Storm military knives, the special “Rybičky” edition produced for Nespresso, and the UTON paratrooper knife made from N690 steel. In addition, Mikov took over the entire production of the Lubomír Maďarič knife series and made minor improvements to other knives in its existing lineup.
“Thanks to the increasing share of production of more complex products aimed at end customers and the development of e-commerce, we are able to gradually reduce the production of simple components for subcontractors. Knives have also largely offset the decline in sales of office equipment and industrial fasteners—an area that was hit hard by the COVID crisis,” explained the company’s sales director, Martin David.
NAREX Bystřice, a traditional Czech manufacturer of hand tools that has also been part of the Mikov Group since 2019, recorded an enormous increase in the number of customers, particularly in foreign markets , in 2020. It is here that the Mikov Group plans to invest the most in robotization and digitization in 2021, in order to meet global demand for its new product—the premium Richter cryo-chisel.