Prototypa-ZM

about COMPANY

The Brno weaponry design school that has been continually developing since 1918, the time of establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, is renown mainly for its military, sporting and hunting weapons of the company Zbrojovka-Brno, and later of Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod.

After the WWII, Brno became the site of concentration of substantial developmental capacities in the field of small-bore and medium-bore weapons and of other special technical means. Furthermore, Vojenská akademie (The Military Academy) has been established there, amassing leading pedagogical and scientific specialists in all fields of weaponry engineering. That particular time period is also closely connected with the foundation of the Výzkumně vývojový ústav Závodů všeobecného strojírenství ( VVÚ ZVS - Research and Developmental Institute of the General Engineering Manufacturing Group) - the forerunner of the initially concern company and later of the state enterprise Prototypa Brno, with its trade mark. VVÚ ZVS, and later Prototypa Brno, gradually become a term of reference in development of a whole range of weapons used in the Czechoslovak armed forces ("Scorpion" type 58 sub-machine gun, machine gun type 59, Kobylka and others). Some of their outstanding specialists, such as Ing. Jiří Čermák, Prof. Lubomír Popelínský, Prof. Miloslav Fišer, Prof. Jan Kusák and others, are slowly becoming respected legends in the fields of weapons and ammunition not only locally, but abroad just as well. However, the state enterprise Prototypa Brno was also active in the field of textile machinery, safe manufacture and other engineering fields, which nevertheless were always spatially separated from development and testing of weapons and ammunition.

A new site was built on the Hudcova street in Brno-Medlánky between 1976 and 1980, wher a unique testing station with five modern and fully equipped tunnels was established for testing of weapons and ammunition for calibers of up to 37 mm.Modern history of the Prototypa trademark  started in 1992, when the privatization of the state enterprise Prototypa Brno started. The privatization project, approved by the government of the Czech Republic in 1993 divided the state enterprise into two parts and the original name of Prototypa, together with the assets of the former Division of Weapons and Ammunition, including the unique tunnel testing station, was apportioned to a newly formed public company. A certain time lag in the actual privatization process, combined with search for a new possible proprietor, led at the end of 1993 to the creation of the company Prototypa-ZM, s.r.o. (a private company), founded by the former developmental employees of the Division of Weapons and Ammunition of the state enterprise Prototypa Brno. The new company took over existing orders of the said Division. This step safeguarded continuation of all tasks in process of completion and prevented a possibility of financial collapse of the as yet unprivatized state enterprise. The new public company PROTOTYPA, a.s., took over the assets of Prototypa Brno as late as on May 1, 1995. The two new companies (PROTOTYPA, a.s., and Prototypa-ZM, s.r.o.) did not have any joint ownership until mid-1999. At that time PROTOTYPA, a.s., acquired a 50 % share in Prototypa-ZM, s.r.o., and both corporations began to coordinate their research, development and commercial strategies. Thus a relatively strong grouping of developmental and testing capacities was created in the field of small and medium bore weapons and special devices.