COLOP

What is COLOP?

Colop is a full-service stamp and tagging equipment company producing tens of millions of stamps annually.

The parent company

COLOP was founded in 1980. Today it is one of the largest manufacturers of self-inking stamps in the world. COLOP was able to create a new line of its PRINTER stamps, which subsequently became the recognized standard. Today, COLOP is a recognized name in the field of stamp production and distribution.

COLOP was founded in 1980 by Karl Skopek and production of the new range of self-inking stamps took off a year later in 1981 near Wels, Austria. From the very beginning, COLOP has paid great attention to the quality of its production, constant innovation and the desire to be geographically represented in as many countries as possible - in the very beginning it had business partners in several neighbouring countries.

The development of production was a necessary step and in 1984 the production line was moved directly to the city of Wels, where it realised an approximate turnover of € 800,000 on around 5,000 m2.

Over time, its commercial awareness grew and the COLOP brand expanded to other markets - Germany (1986), France (1991), Slovakia (1992), Czech Republic (1993), Romania (2000) and Spain (2013).

Strategic objectives included the acquisition of various companies in Europe, including the Swedish company Unigraphics in 2006 and the British company Mark C. Brown. In 2009 the British company William Jones Clifton (WJC Ltd.) or the Hungarian company R+C in 2012.

In the same year (2012), the parent company also invested massively in a production line in Borovany in the Czech Republic, where it expanded production to 1,400 m2, and a year later in its Austrian town of Wels.

Today, COLOP is one of the world leaders in the production of stamps and other marking equipment. It supplies more than 120 countries worldwide, accounting for 98% of production.

Czech branch

It was founded in 1993 under the trade name STEMPEL spol. s r. o., since 2005 it has adopted the name COLOP CZ s. r. o. The headquarters of the subsidiary is in the village of Borovany, about 20 km southeast of České Budějovice.

COLOP CZ s.r.o. started its business activity in 1994 and since that date it has been the exclusive distributor of COLOP products on the Czech market. COLOP CZ is an ISO 9001 certified company and is involved in the EKO-KOM system of pooled fulfilment.

Since its establishment, the Czech branch has been entrusted with a special responsibility within the COLOP Group. The Czech branch is the only foreign unit to have taken over part of the production programme from its parent, including the know-how for the production of tape stamps in several world languages. In addition, the local workshops assemble stamps of the Printer Line, Pocket Stamp and Stamp Mouse series or the unique EOS line flash stamps, which we like to refer to as the stamps of the future. We also manufacture accessories for these stamps - spare ink pads and pads.

With business success, production and warehouse space gradually grew - in 2006 the warehouse expanded by 450 m2 and the number of employees to 80. In 2012-2014, the construction of new production and warehouse space totalling 1400 m2 was gradually completed, creating an additional 50 jobs.