Semler´s Factory in Vochov
Šimon (Simon) Semler bought the building of the future factory from the miller Jan Zapf and at the beginning of the 20th century he started a wire goods production there. The production range initially consisted of nails, but it gradually expanded and some of the products of this factory became world-famous, without exaggeration. These were mainly gramophone needles manufactured under the SEM brand. They also produced piano strings, binding wires, barbed wires, mesh, nails, pins, crochet hooks, knitting needles, trouser hooks, safety pins, paper clips, hair clips, umbrella reinforcements, any many more. The leftover wires could then be used to make, for example, the popular sparklers. At that time, Šimon’s sons already owned the factory. World War II was a disaster for the Semlers, as well as for other Jewish families. The family was forced to sell the factory to the Prague Iron Company and fled abroad.
In the 1940s, the factory was nationalized and became part of the Spojené ocelárny. In 1949, the factory became the Šroubárny a drátovny (Screw and Wire Works). In 1951, production was terminated and the factory building served as warehouses for the army. Production was resumed only in the 1960s, when parts for the Škoda Works began to be produced here, under which this factory was newly included. This period also entered the consciousness of local people because the research group of the Závod jaderných elektráren (Nuclear Power Plants Plant) was operating here and working on the development of a school nuclear reactor, which was to be the smallest in the world.
Production continued in Vochov in the 1970s. Organizationally, it first fell under Kovopodnik Plzeň and then under the Průmyslový podnik města Plzně (Industrial Enterprise of the City of Pilsen), into which Kovovýroba Vochov was incorporated. Pulleys, transport wheels with ball bearings, portable pumps, television antennas, construction tinsmith’s products, and more were produced here. In the 1980s, production expanded to include Kovotherm boilers. In the 1990s, the production of boilers, antennas, and other products continued. Škoda plants reconstructed the factory building and built a new, larger reactor room, but they did not launch the new test facility and ended the research program. You can see the reactor room in the Atom Museum in Brdy. As part of the privatization of state property, the new owner was G-Team in 1997. G-Team continues production in Vochov with a changed range. It focuses on the production of equipment for the energy sector and exports its products worldwide.
Where to go next …