Establishment of the company

Vlastimil and Dobroslav Zátka commenced operations of what was at the time the largest pasta plant in Austro-Hungary at Boršov nad Vltavou.

At the beginning, it was necessary to convince housewives used to making their own pasta that industrially produced pasta was every bit as good.

At the beginning, the company was subjected to a campaign by associations and organisations in Alpine countries which was supposed to discourage German housewives from purchasing goods from Czech manufacturers. The Zátka family significantly contributed to the development of Czech culture, education and industry as it was also present at the establishment of the Budvar brewery, the Sfinx porcelain enamel plant and the Grafo pencil plants, as well as at the establishment of their own pasta plant and flour mill.

A change in the legal form

From a public company to
a limited liability company.

Pasta was not included in the so-called nutrition plan, so the pasta plant was shut down for the entire war.

After the war, raw materials were not available and in particular, commercial links with Alpine states were cut with the establishment of a state border between South Bohemia and Austria. The company, which had been booming until that time, suddenly lost two thirds of its original consumers.

A huge advertising campaign was launched in newly established Czechoslovakia in order to emphasise the first-class quality of the products. Zátka pasta again became a well-known product amongst housewives.

Modernisation

Expansion of production using the first automated machines: all of the old production hall equipment was gradually replaced in the period up to 1939.

From the end of the 19th century to 1939, Zátka pasta was shipped to Singapore by a wholesale company in London, because the product had showed itself to have the greatest resistance to the tropical Malaysian environment.

World War 2

The Germans confiscated all of the Zátka family’s property, foodstuff production was halted and it was replaced with military production.

The original owners were only allowed to return to the devastated mill and pasta plant after 1945, but even then this was to be for only a short time.

Socialist production

In 1948, the company was once again confiscated and nationalised and the Zátka family had to go into exile.

The company was incorporated into a state enterprise under the name of “the Mills and Pasta Plants State Enterprise, Plant 2 Březí” (Mlýny a těstárny, s.p., závod 2 Březí) and it became the centre of the South Bohemian milling-pasta industry.

Despite the limited development of the technical base, the company managed to maintain the quality of production up to 1989 and the pasta plant was one of the best in the country.

Re-establishment of the company

The former state enterprise was initially assigned to the Mills and Pasta Plants Březí management and the heirs of the Zátka family in the form of an economic leasehold.

They then acquired the business for good in the form of a direct sale as of 1.1.1994.

Dr Vladimír Zátka MSc became the first Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Modern high-temperature Italian lines with computer controls and super high-temperature drying for the production of short and long pasta were brought into operation.

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A change in the legal form

From a limited liability company to a joint stock company.

Europasta holding

The company becomes the founding member of the holding of pasta producers, Europasta B.V. Other major pasta producers from the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic then gradually join the holding. In this form, the Europasta holding is the only pasta producer in Central Europe which has the capacity to meet the demands of multinational business companies for supplies of pasta from one supplier to all the countries where they operate.

Thanks to its position right in Central Europe, the Europasta holding also knows the needs and preferences of customers, national or local business companies, and is able to meet them.