Culobel

On the 4th of October, the new building was officially opened in the presence of the press, customers and supppliers.

The establishment of Culobel China is a fact! On January 1st, 2006 Michael Zhou will occupy his new office in the Shanghai Mart Building, in Shanghai. As a full-time Culobel team member, Michael will explore for opportunities in the broad Shanghai area, and give us, as well as our customers the strategic platform to stay competitive for complimentary products to our own business. This platform may also be offered to customers in their quest for entering the Chinese market. Michael has an engineering degree, with tooling background, and reached a Master's in International Business through a scholarship and an exchange-programme with the Vlekho-business school in Brussels, where he staid for one year. We are all very excited and eager to start with our Chinese bridgehead!

About five years ago, Culobel started a small production unit in South Moravia, Czech Republic, called PV-czech. With its 15 people, a few presses and a welding robot, it supported the parent company in Belgium. Nowadays, PV-czech is called Culobel CZ, and has turned into a modern, well-equipped company with 120 trained employees. We carry an ISO-9001 certificate, and produce vessels, sheet-metal as well as assemblies for several multinational customers. In order to support this growth, we have renovated our existing buildings, and added new offices as well as comfortable, modern social facilities for our employees. By this addition we have created one building with separated divisions, and a clear flow. To celebrate this moment we are inviting the official authorities, as well as our most valued customers, shareholders & business friends to visit us, witness our operations, and meet the people behind our company. This celebration takes place on November 23rd '06.

As a result of our growing business, the production hall in our Czech plant became too small. An expansion plan was developed to create a second hall. Along with the new hall, the original production hall will be renovated. A new office and social building, connecting both halls, will also be constructed. When completed, our production area will increase from 1400m² to 4500m² of modern production space. The first phase is already underway and will be finished by the end of October 2005. The total project is due to be completed before the summer of 2006.