The Highland region, and especially the area around Jihlava, became the cradle of the meat-packing industry. The village of Kostelec arose in the vale of the River Jihlava which has formed the land border between Bohemia and Moravia from ancient times.
The buildings of the Kostelec meat combine have a very long history, since we can find evidence of them as a mill standing near today?s Silniční pond. Among its owners at the beginning of the 20th century we can mention the Deutsch family, from whom the Fruhauf family bought all the land and buildings on 30th October 1904. Within three years, however, the mill was lying in its own ashes after a fire, and was sold to a businessman from Jablonec.
On the 28th September 1917 a company producing smoked and canned meat was founded in Kostelec near Jihlava. Its founders were the companions Jan Satrapa from Studená and Richard Spitzer. They directed their attention to buildings enclosed in ground glass from the firm Zimmer and Schmied from Jablonec nad Nisou. These buildings were advantageously situated near the Jihlava - Veselí n/Lužnici railway line and its branch line from Kostelec to Dačice and Slavonice. There were also here suitable conditions for setting up sidings, which were designed to ease the transfer of raw materials for processing and the despatch of finished products likewise.
Nearby was the largest town in the Highlands - Jihlava, which itself offered good opportunities for the sale of manufactured products from the meat-packing industry.
Kostelec was at that time the centre of the cattle-raising area of the Highlands. An example of how a smoked meat factory might prosper was provided by the inter-war activities of the company Jan Satrapa in Studená.
The buildings in Kostelec were put up in a very short time and were quickly adapted to the needs of smoked meat production, so that operations could begin in the shortest possible time. The construction of factory space continued in later years, that is in 1923 and 1924, when a new canning plant and boiler room were built.
The factory in Kostelec first of all manufactured ordinary smoked products but soon started to manufacture Kostelec long-life salami, and which became well-known and had a large consumption. Other specialities were the manufacture of Kostelec frankfurters and Moravian sausages.
The Kostelec factory immediately turned to export activities too after the war, when smoked meats and famous hams were supplied to a new market in Vienna. Canned ham was exported both to the French Riviera and to Italy.
At the end of the ?thirties, the then Jihlava district had two meat-packing plants - Kostelec and Hodice. In the Dačice district two plants: Studená and Krahulčí. The factories were equipped with the most modern production facilities of their time. Here were manufactured all kinds of canned meat such as Prague ham, mild Kostelec frankfurters, liver paté, coarse sausages, Moravian sausages and similar products. They also manufactured here quality long-life Hungarian salami of various types, as well as cheaper salamis. Quality Kostelec products were distributed throughout the then Czechoslovakia via a network of factory outlets.
The period of economic crisis in the years 1930-1933 represents a hard epoch, but only in terms of the general crisis, because the operations of the firm itself were never existentially threatened.
In the following post-war period the company underwent all historical peripetiae including nationalization after the year 1948. Thus, like many others, the Kostelec factory was later placed among business companies with the title South Moravia Industrial Meat-Packing Plant 06 Kostelec. During this period a centrally controlled economic model was in place, instead of the free market.
Privatization in 1992 allowed the formation of the company Kostelecké uzeniny. It underwent a gradual and well thought out modernization. New operating plants were built which, at the level of hygiene and technology, meet all norms. The turn of the millennium was significant in the history of Kostelecké uzeniny. Then it was that the firm obtained an investment opportunity from the government for the construction of a new meat production plant. Four years later the first phase of the construction of a new meat production plant was completed and in 2005 this building received the award of Highlands Prestige Building. The firm became the largest meat processing plant and meat producer in the Czech Republic.
