Brno - While the economic crisis forced Škoda Auto car producer to schedule a three-weeks production brake for December, Iveco bus manufacturer (formerly Karosa) from Vysoké Mýto plans no such measures. Iveco's employees will only have a regular two-weeks Christmas leave.

"Our clients now have a worse access to finances. They have larger problems with financing their acquisitions, but they still want to buy," director general of Iveco Daniel Patka said.

This year, 3,020 buses were produced in Vysoké Mýto, more than half of them sold to western Europe, namely to France, while 440 were bought by Czech and Slovak buyers. Other buses were sold to Romania.

In comparison with the previous year, Iveco produced more buses, as the company invested EUR 6 million in a new paintshop that made the production faster.

Nobody can predict what developments the next year will bring. "Every week brings new changes. We have to be flexible in reacting to them. We cannot say now if laying off personnel will be necessary. We have not made any decision yet," Patka said.

Iveco employs 2,400 persons, including 300 that were hired this year. If the company will have to reduce its personnel, 320 employees supplied by work agencies will be laid off first. Petka said though that this measure would solve only a part of the problems. "We really cannot predict what the next year will look like from the economic point of view," Patka said.

70 years of tradition

Karosa company was established in 1948 after nationalization of the private company owned by Josef Sodomka. The first city transport buses were made in 1939.

Currently, the majority of shares of the factory in Vysoké Mýto is owned by Renault and Iveco. The factory produces buses for city transport, inter-city transport and tourism. It also manufactures minibuses.