{"id":16644,"date":"2026-08-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praguehints.com\/czech-companies-you-know\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T21:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:06:34","slug":"czech-companies-you-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praguehints.com\/he\/czech-companies-you-know\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0160koda, Ba\u0165a and the Czech Companies You Already Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

The car you have driven, the shoes your grandparents wore and the antivirus on your laptop are all Czech.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Czech industry has an odd relationship with recognition: several of its companies became genuinely global, and almost nobody outside the country associates them with Czechia. Here are the ones you have already encountered.<\/p>\n

Škoda<\/h2>\n

Founded in Mladá Boleslav in 1895 as a bicycle workshop, then cars from 1905. Nationalised under communism, when the name became a punchline in Western Europe, and bought by Volkswagen<\/strong> after 1989 — a turnaround so complete that Škoda now outsells VW itself in several markets. It remains the single largest company in the country.<\/p>\n

Baťa<\/h2>\n

Tomáš Baťa built a shoe empire from Zlín in the 1920s and 30s, complete with a purpose-built modernist company town that still defines the city. Baťa pioneered assembly-line shoemaking, profit-sharing and the …99 price<\/strong>. The company survives globally, headquartered in Switzerland after the family fled in 1938.<\/p>\n

Avast<\/h2>\n

Founded in Prague in 1988 as a cooperative, Avast became one of the most-used antivirus products in the world and merged with NortonLifeLock in 2022 — one of the largest tech deals in Czech history.<\/p>\n

Budvar and Pilsner Urquell<\/h2>\n

Two breweries whose products are sold in most countries on earth. Budvar remains state-owned and has spent a century in trademark litigation with Anheuser-Busch over the Budweiser name.<\/p>\n

Zetor, Tatra, ČKD<\/h2>\n

Zetor<\/strong> tractors were exported across the developing world for decades. Tatra<\/strong> builds distinctive off-road trucks and once made radical streamlined cars. ČKD<\/strong> built trams that still run in dozens of cities.<\/p>\n

Kofola and the smaller names<\/h2>\n

Kofola<\/strong> is the Czech cola invented in 1960 that still outsells Pepsi here. Botas<\/strong>, Petrof<\/strong> pianos and Jawa<\/strong> motorcycles all have devoted followings abroad.<\/p>\n

\u05e9\u05d0\u05dc\u05d5\u05ea \u05e0\u05e4\u05d5\u05e6\u05d5\u05ea<\/h2>\n

Is Škoda still Czech?<\/strong>
It is owned by Volkswagen but designed, engineered and largely built in the Czech Republic, and employs tens of thousands here.<\/p>\n

What is Kofola?<\/strong>
A Czech cola-style soft drink from 1960, herbal and less sweet than Coca-Cola. It genuinely competes with the American brands domestically.<\/p>\n

Where was Baťa founded?<\/strong>
In Zlín, Moravia, which Baťa rebuilt as a modernist company town in the 1920s and 30s.<\/p>\n

Read more: the Czech economy<\/a>, Czech inventions<\/a> \u05d5 business guides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last reviewed in August 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

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