Dačice-based Centropen, a manufacturer of office, school and hobby supplies, has invested CZK 16 million in robotics this year. It now has six ABB industrial robots, one replacing the work of up to three employees. The company already uses artificial intelligence (AI) in marketing. Due to the economic cooling in Europe, the company expects sales to be down 10 percent year-on-year this year, said Martin Žahourek, the company’s CEO. Last year, the company made CZK 546.1 million.
“The robots always replace unskilled employees who took the packed boxes from the packers, packed them into cartons and stacked them on a pallet. One robot usually replaces one person per shift. This year, however, we purchased a whole new packing station with a robot replacing two people. Another example is automation downstream of the injection press – the robot takes the moulding directly from the press and places it on the belt. The casing passes first through a die-cutting machine and then through a gluing machine where two stickers are applied. Afterwards, another, simpler robot folds the already glued sleeves into a box,” described the director.
Over the past five years, the company has invested $26 million in robotics. It has reduced the cost per unit produced and also needs fewer workers, which are in short supply on the labour market anyway. ABB’s six industrial robots can replace the work of up to 18 people, the director said.
This year, the company expects sales to be down a tenth year-on-year. Profit will be slightly higher than last year because electricity prices have fallen. The company also commissioned a solar power plant that covers 30 percent of Centropen’s annual consumption of 3,700 megawatt-hours. The company had sales of 546.1 million last year and a profit after tax of 37.8 million. While the Czech and Slovak markets grew year-on-year, exports stagnated mainly due to the situation in Ukraine, according to the annual report.
“It is impossible to replace the losses from Russia and Ukraine from year to year,” the director said earlier. Exports accounted for 59 percent of turnover last year. Most of the company’s exports are to countries such as Britain, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, France and South Korea. It continues to supply Russia, but sales are half what they were before the war. The company now has 347 employees, down 30 year-on-year. “From January we expect to cautiously recruit blue-collar jobs,” the director said. After the Russian market crashed, the company introduced two-shift operation instead of three-shift at many workplaces.
The company is also already using AI, specifically Chat GPT. Especially its marketing department when creating texts. “We don’t use AI in production yet, nor do we plan to. But things like predictive maintenance, advanced production scheduling are interesting technologies and I believe we will start with them in the future,” the CEO said.
Centropen produced 191 million stationery and other products last year in its 2,500 square metre facility. The most in-demand product is black permanent marker. The company’s machines, which date back to 1940, have a daily capacity of 1.3 million pieces.
Source: Dačice Centropen and ISBnews
Photo: EPO MACHINERY
