Brno - More than one thousand luxury hospital beds are heading to Saudi Arabia from the Czech Republic.
The Czech based Linet company won a bid to supply 1020 Eleganza De Luxe hospital beds worth about 50 million CZK (US$ 3 million/£1.5 millio) to 19 hospitals in Saudi Arabia.
The electric beds will be used by the patients in Riyadh and at the pilgrimage sites, in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Victory over competition
In a bid for a contract to supply the beds, Linet defeated companies from Japan, USA and Germany.
Linet has been trading in Saudi Arabia since 2000 and, by the end of last year, had sold a total of over 6000 beds there. Linet is the third largest Czech company exporting there.
"We had to fight for a commission from the Saudi Health Ministry for over two years. The situation was complicated by our competitors who had quite a solid position in the market thanks to their previous contracts," Mr Jan Horák, Linet's business manager says.
The company hopes to be successful in the next bid, too. Saudi Arabia plans to buy 1600 hospital beds worth 70 million CZK (over US$ 4 million/£2 million).
On top of that, the Saudi government plans replacing up to 20 thousand beds over the next couple of years. It's currently completing a thorough renovation of 80 hospitals while investing in building eight new hospitals and 280 health centres.
Worldwide success
The company has also been successful in other Arabic countries. Linet-made beds can be found in Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait and Palestine, among other places.
Linet is not only a top company in the Czech market, but ranks among the five largest hospital bed producing companies worldwide.
In 2006/07 business year, it exported 86 per cent of its output to 75 countries around the globe. EU countries are its most important customers.
During the same year, Linet with its 460 strong workforce had a total turnover of 1.66 billion CZK (almost US$95 million/£48 million). The company is based in Želevčice near the town of Slaný, not far from Prague, and produces more than 33 thousand hospital beds per year.
