Technology is our life

19. 10. 1907 Josef Beneš, founder, was born

15. 9. 1914 Mr Josef Lát was born. Second husband of widowed Mrs. Benešová.

1. 9. 1927 Mr. Josefa Polak is presenting his first patent – describing principals of cold chamber high pressure die-casting. These principals are followed even nowadays in high pressure Alu die-casting machines.

15. 9. 1934 Mr. Josef Beneš (*1907 – †1945) starts his first business –  “Foundry and machinework J. Beneš”

23. 3. 1937 Second patent of Mr. Josefa Polak presented – this patent improves HPDC principals as stated in 1927.

In the same year Mr. Josef Beneš moves his production from Prague (Holešovice) to his new site in Průhonice.

7. 5. 1945 Mr. Josef Beneš fell during the Prague upraising

8. 5. 1945 end of WW II

1. 8. 1945 Mr. Josef Lát enters the company

19. 1. 1947 Wedding day of Mrs. Anděla Benešová (born Zemanová) and Mr. Josef Lát

6. 8. 1947 Mr. Josef Lát was born (son of Anděla and Josef Lát).

The construction of terraced houses for company employees took place during the whole year 1947.

23. 4. 1948 Mrs. Anděla Látová established as a national property manager in her previously own, now nationalized, company. One year later Mr. Josef Lát becomes a manager of this company.

Historical remark – nationalized was the whole production site, Terraced houses for employees and even the family house of Mrs. and Mr. Lát.

After 3 years of development the firs low pressure die-casting machine in the Czechoslovakia finished. Designers and technologists involved were Fr. Hofman, Josef Lát and Fr. Trnavský – all from Průhonice factory.

3. 12. 1980 Mr.Josef Lát (*1914) dies. His death breaks the line of family business.

On the January 1st 1985 Mr. Josef Lát (*1946) enter the company as managing director and follows the tradition of a “family business”.

July the 1st 1988 – the smallest state company in the Czech republi was founded – MENET PRŮHONICE s.p. was established on the base of  Průhonice plant after its separation from national company Metaz n.p.

MENET is an acronym of MEtalurgy and Nontraditional Technology – as nontraditional technology was understood the highenergetic watter jet (so called paser), which was imported from the USA. Průhonice instalation was the first one within the East-block.

May 27th 1992 Průhonice factory taken back into private property from the State Property Fund (established after Velvet revolution to enable the state ownership to be transfered into private). The property just partly returned (10,9%), the rest had to be privatized and bought back from the SPF.

This is the moment when new era of family business starts – BENEŠ a LÁT, slévárna a strojírna v.o.s. (foundry and machineworks  public company)

Second generation of Low pressure die-casting machine presented. This generation was co-invented by Mr. Jakub Beneš (grandson of Josef Beneš, founder), Mr Libor Tengler and others.

December 31st 1998 transformation of the company into joint-stock company – BENEŠ a LÁT, slévárna a strojírna a.s.

On January the 1st 2003 after 2 decades of private ownership the feamily owners reorganization takes place.

Mr. Lumír Al-Dbagh joins the company as managing director and later as a shareholder as well.

May 2005 – rekonstruktion of former textile factory into Zinc die-casting foundry and production transfer finished to Slaná u Semil

December 2005 – Production site of VISTA Semily spol. s r.o. in Sutice taken over and of its production (plastic injection molding) integrated into portfolio.

Along with technical portfolio of VISTA (formerly called Kovozávody Semily) the production of toys acquired – construction toys SEVA and other toys from original KZS production.

October 15th 2007 Ing. Josefa Láta (*1947) dies unexpectedly.

Company management is transfered to the 3rd generation of the family – Josef, Marie and Jan Lát’s.

November 15th 2007 the company vins the prestigious title  “Company of the year 2007 in the  Czech republic”

Construction of the new production site in  Poříčany finished.

The official opening of the facility in Poříčany on May 27th took place. The first lady of the Czech republic Mrs. Livia Klausová solemnly started the production.

Along with the new facility the 3rd generation of low pressure die-casting machine was installed following the development from 50’s and 90’s.

Increased capacity thru reconstruction of production facility in Slaná.

April the 1st 2013 Czech producer of high pressure die-casting parts TTS Polak in Mimoň acquired from German group TTS. Acquired production site is based on the traditional Czech industrial company Polak founded in 1920’s.

New toolshop facility in Sutice finished.

April 2014 Mimoň production facility  integrated into mother company. Along with this integration and according to growing scope of technology the company name shortened and simplified to BENEŠ a LÁT a.s.

June 2014 surrounding lands and buildings in Mimoň purchased to complete the production site.

Production capacity of plastic injection molding production in Sutice increased in the segment of 500t clamping force machines.

New building in Poříčany site including machining facility equipped with state-of-the-art CNC centres by Okuma and Brother.

New office building for CAD designers, sales, purchase, customer service and finance.

Massive increase of machining capacity thru investments in 2016.

Center of Applied Research and Additive Manufacturing – CARDAM s.r.o. founded on  the 30th  September 2016. The company established by BENEŠ a LÁT, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of  Science and Česká Zbrojovka. As the full name suggests, CARDAM is focused to new trends and technologies in the field of additive manufacturing and computing in this direction.

May 2017 – increased capacity of Zinc high pressure die-casting foundry in Slaná – fully automated production cells based on machines produced by  FRECH and COLOSIO companies.

After 14 years ownership structure change appeared – BENEŠ a LÁT company is 100% family business again.

In accordance with long term goals in R&D new 3D printer EOS M290 for metal additive manufacturing installed in Poříčany. Mai aim is R&D of materials and printing techniques. In the whole  package of this investment was SW MAGMA for casting process simulation, computer tomography (x-ray) GE X-Cube for internal structures quality, spectral analyzer Q4 Tasmann for chemical composition testing and above mentioned printer EOS M290.

4th generation of low pressure die-casting machine presented. Machine is equipped with SW for providing real time overview of key parameters focusing on production of leakage-proof and highly precision parts.

On the 26th March 2019  new production building in Mimoň plant approved for  production – it increases capacity of final operations on the HPDC castings as  well as the logistic capacity of finished parts.

Shift of the final operations and logistics into new  building opened the space for increasing casting capacity – therefore on June 17th 2019 was launched production on the new  production cell consisting of IDRA OL900 CS (clamping  force 900 tons),  Robot ABB 4600 and Trimming/stamping press Tecnopress KZP-40.

January 2020 – following the environmental friendly attitude we started to increse the share of electricity from renewable resources – for 2020 on the level of 20%.

Sep. 21st 2020 Czech TOP 100 awarded us as one of “Most Admired Czech Companies 2020” for our positive impact during COVID crisis – migration and redesign of 3D printed face mask to serial production in cooperation with CARDAM spol. s r.o..

Oct. 5th 2020 Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic awarded our long term attitude and benefits for region and industry. The Prize was handed over to Mr. Josef Lát by the President of CI Mr. Jaroslav Hanák.

March 2021 – last year defined direction towards Renewable resources employed in our processes, we have signed a 3 year contract increasing the share of electricity produced from wind and water with the goal to reach 85% share by the 2023.

Oct. 23rd 2021 – according to our long term focus to ESG our colleagues Tomáš Faltýnek and Jan Lát  were presenting BENEŠ a LÁT solution of intra-company transportation using EV’s and charging stations on the Clean mobility festival in Pelhřimov.

The year 2022 was “the year of appreciation” of our attitude in variety of activities:

May 31st 2022 – 3. place in the National quality in family business of the ČR awarded by Czech Board of Quality (by Ministery of Industry) and Association of Small an Medium-Sized Enterprises and Crafts CZ.

Setptember 20th 2022 – Jan Lát awarded in the Manager of the Year  competition held by Czech Management Association with following Honourable titles:
– Category Winner: Industry and associated fields 2021
– TOP 10 Manager of the Year Competition 2021
– Manager of the Year 2021

Oct. 19th 2022 – Prize of Technology Agency of the Czech Republic 2022 in category PARTNERSHIP for cooperation on the project of National Centre of Competence MATCA (Materials, Advanced Technologies, Coatings and their Aplications).

Oct. 25th 2022 – 2. place in IBM Company of the Year 2022 in Central Bohemia region.

After a three-year break, we managed to restore the tradition of balls and return to normal life, including social events and meetings.

On June 22, 2023, we were awarded the title of Gentleman’s Company of the Year at the CZECH TOP 100 gala.

2023 was also the year when we managed to establish partnerships with new customers and successfully completed certification for deliveries to “marine” equipment, such as engine and drive unit components.

On March 21, 2024, Jan Lát received the “GOVERNOR OF THE CENTRAL BOHEMIAN REGION AWARD 2023” from Mrs. Petra Pecková in the entrepreneur category.

On May 16, 2024, we received the Czech Best Managed Company 2024 award from Deloitte – both financial performance and social responsibility outside and corporate culture inside our company were evaluated.

On May 24, 2024, the Poříčany plant celebrated the 90th anniversary of the company’s founding. We also remembered other important milestones – 32 years since the privatization and restitution of the company back into the hands of the family, 15 years since the start of operations in Poříčany and many others… (more on this page: 1934-2024)

December 16, 2024 We received an award from Czech TOP 100 for 5th place in the Best Annual Reports of 2023 competition..