Lutin, North Moravia, Aug 13 (CTK) – Pump producer Edwards saw its sales rise from Kc4.788bn in 2016 to Kc5.037bn last year, its profit falling by 17 percent to Kc516m, according to data from the company’s annual report.
The Lutin plant of Edwards is a unit of Swedish group Atlas Copco.
“The financial performance in 2017 rose by 5 percent thanks to increased demand for the company’s products in all regions, mainly in China, the USA and Europe,” the report says.
The Lutin plant’s output increased by 18 percent year on year, but its financial result was affected by the development of the crown’s exchange rate.
The company benefited from a previous transfer of production from Britain to the Czech Republic.
Most of the 2017 output was exported abroad. Revenues from sales abroad amounted to Kc4.8bn.
In 2016, Edwards’s sales fell from the 2015’s record-breaking amount of Kc5.318bn to Kc4.788bn owing to a transfer of part of production to China. Production of technologically outdated air pumps was transferred from Lutin to a sister plant in China.
The Lutin plant produces vacuum and pressure pumps used in the food-processing industry, car manufacturing and the chemical industry. It also supplies pumps to nuclear power plants and to steel and solar panel producers.
At the end of 2017, the Lutin plant employed about 440 people.