MATADOR Group celebrates the 115th anniversary of its establishment

Bratislava, 21 September 2020 – MATADOR, the Slovak industrial-investment holding company is celebrating the 115th anniversary of the company’s establishment in 1905. MATADOR Group is transforming itself into a development group and it is entering its next phase with a new mission: Innovation to Win.

MATADOR Group is one of the largest industrial and investment groups in Slovakia. It has been in the market for more than 115 years and it is now a premium and innovative supplier of solutions for mobility and industry. In addition to mass production, MATADOR has long been broadening itself into a development group.

“Development is becoming the core of our business. It is a reaction to the age and progress brings new challenges for the industry,” says Štefan Rosina, President of MATADOR Group.

This year, the MATADOR brand is celebrating the 115th anniversary of the company’s establishment in 1905. Since its inception, it has survived two world wars and has become a symbol of honest Slovak industry. MATADOR was a tyre manufacturing company more than a century, but after a strategic transformation, the group began to focus on the wider automotive industry. Over a time horizon of ten years, it became Slovakia’s largest TIER1 supplier.

One of the key acquisitions of the MATADOR Group came in 2006, when it included the Czech development company Aufeer Design into its portfolio. The Czech branch of the group participates in developing solutions for production, tooling and especially engineering and design. Its headquarters are in Mladá Boleslav, from where it mainly serves large customers from the automotive sector. MATADOR can therefore also rely on its own Innovation Centre, the core of which is a design studio and a clay model lab.

“The great synergy between design, automotive engineering and industrial automation services enables us to be a supplier of comprehensive turnkey design solutions – from project assignment, through design, to final implementation,” explains managing director Martin Kele.

The automotive industry still forms a significant part of MATADOR Group’s business. In 2017, the group entered into a strategic partnership with SODECIA Automotive Europe, a global leader in the production of structural components for the automotive industry.

Within the development centre in Dubnice nad Váhom, MATADOR focuses mainly on the comprehensive development of robotic and automated lines, or the development of solutions in industrial automation, which is the most dynamically developing part of the group. The portfolio is complemented by sophisticated engineering in the form of the development and production of single-purpose equipment and forming tools, as well as special robotic applications and solutions for intelligent industry.

MATADOR Group is comprehensively developing its portfolio with activities across the entire mobility sector, including rail technology, the aerospace industry and special equipment.

“We follow current trends and we realize that the future belongs to development. We also orient our divisions in this direction. We focus on activities with higher added value, we bring customers sophisticated solutions in the industrial automation sector, technological services and solutions related to the Industry 4.0 concept. We develop our business by following new trends such as digitization, robotics, e-mobility and alternative drive systems, intelligent solutions and connectivity. We are also expanding our capabilities in design and software engineering. We want to bring our own innovative solutions and services of the future,” adds Martin Kele, Managing Director of MATADOR Group.

The MATADOR Group enters the new decade with the ambition of becoming an innovative technological leader in Central and Eastern Europe and transforming itself from a manufacturing company into a leader in research and development. This is also reflected in the group’s new mission: Innovation to Win. For more than a century, the group has brought people new technologies and innovative solutions, due to which its customers are more efficient and productive.

“We see innovation as the fundamental principle of our success. It is the driving force for progress and we want our group and our customers and business partners to make progress,” concludes Štefan Rosina.

The MATADOR Group is one of the largest industrial groups in Slovakia. It has been in the market for more than 115 years, and it now employs more than 2 500 people in production and research and development in Slovakia and abroad. The company has built a key position as a system supplier for services and products for the automotive and general industry in Central Europe. It offers design & engineering services, mass production of components, industrial automation and production of press tools for top European car manufacturers. In addition, it is actively involved in research and development of new technologies and new materials for the automotive industry.