BRNO, Czech Republic, Sept. 18, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FEI (Nasdaq:FEIC) announced today the opening of a new technology center in the industrial estate of Cernovická Terasa, Brno, Czech Republic. With a surface area of 27.000 m2 (nearly 300,000 square feet), it is the largest technology plant built this year in the Czech Republic. FEI invested 800 million Czech crowns (approximately $38M USD) in the new building and the construction took 18 months to complete.
"While FEI has had operations in Brno for almost 20 years now, we are pleased to expand our manufacturing, laboratory and office capacity in the region. The larger facility will employ about 600 people and produce approximately 60 percent of our entire electron microscope production," states Jiří Očadlík, director-general of FEI's Czech Republic facility. "The new building is unique, not only because of its size, but also because of the state-of-the-art production facilities and pleasant working environment for our employees."
FEI is the leading world-wide manufacturer of electron microscopes, and the price for some of its most powerful microscopes can reach tens of million crowns. This year it was awarded "Best Employer" of the South Moravia region. The Moravian metropolis is important to FEI because of its strategic location and availability of a high-quality, skilled workforce.
Očadlík adds, "The new facility is an enormous success for Brno, as this investment opens the door to further growth in the area, as well as expanding the scope of FEI's business activities in Brno. In addition to producing the high-end microscopes in the Brno facility, we are also testing and servicing them before they are shipped to customers world-wide."
FEI's new facility is located at Vlastimila Pecha 12, Brno 627 00. For more information, please visit www.fei.com.
About FEI
FEI Company (Nasdaq:FEIC) designs, manufactures and supports a broad range of high-performance microscopy workflow solutions that provide images and answers at the micro-, nano- and picometer scales. Its innovation and leadership enable customers in industry and science to increase productivity and make breakthrough discoveries. Headquartered in Hillsboro, Ore., USA, FEI has over 2,600 employees and sales and service operations in more than 50 countries around the world. More information can be found at: www.fei.com.
FEI Safe Harbor Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements that include statements regarding the expected production volume, capacity and other performance capabilities and benefits of FEI's Brno, Czech Republic facility, as well as statements regarding the staffing of the facility. Factors that could affect these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to our ability to manufacture, ship, deliver, install and service the products as expected, underutilization of the facility due to a slow-down in FEI's businesses, our failure to realize the expected benefits of the new facility and our failure to hire and retain the requisite number of high-quality, skilled employees necessary to achieve the expected benefits of the new facility. Please also refer to our Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information on these factors and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. FEI assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.