FEI has announced the opening of a new technology center in the industrial estate of Ĉernovická 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.

Očadlík continued, “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.”