Czech heat pump maker Master Therm increased output by a fifth last year

Heat pump manufacturer Master Therm increased production last year by a fifth at its plant in Jablonec nad Jizerou in the Semily district. Despite a partial slowdown in the Czech market, the company had a record year. It supplied 1200 heat pumps to the market, but only 30 percent were for the domestic market. Most of its output is exported, mainly to the United Kingdom and Ireland, company spokesperson Kateřina Kubatová told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) today.

“Interest in heat pumps in Czechia has slowed somewhat, which is hardly surprising. We may have passed the peak, and many households are in a difficult financial situation. The cost of everyday living has risen significantly, meaning many people have no money to invest in savings,” said Jiří Svoboda, director of Master Therm.

According to him, most of the heat pumps produced were therefore destined for export. Besides the UK and Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland are among Master Therm’s most important markets.

“It is unfortunately paradoxical, but we struggle to compete in the local market with products imported from China. Western markets, meanwhile, are less interested in these products thanks to more advanced local legislation and a greater emphasis on quality, and prefer us as a high-quality European manufacturer,” Svoboda added.

According to him, the company does not supply heat pumps only to households, which account for just about half of its output. Master Therm also delivers custom projects for industrial companies and, for example, hotels, where standard models are not sufficient and bespoke solutions are needed.

The company’s largest projects include a waste heat recovery system for the two most advanced particle accelerators at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Řež near Prague, and a waste heat recovery system for the Czech Republic’s largest supercomputer at VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. Last year, the manufacturer received the British Build Back Better Awards for supplying ground-source heat pumps for the Eastern High development project, comprising 170 carbon-neutral homes in Cardiff, in the south of the United Kingdom.

In response to growing demand, the company built a new production hall in Jablonec nad Jizerou two years ago and is continuing to expand the site. Its workforce has grown from 20 to 40. According to Svoboda, the company is now preparing to automate production and hire more staff. “From our perspective, automation and hiring new people complement each other. A large number of orders are for bespoke products. While a production line could in future manufacture the most popular models, we will need even more skilled people in production and development to help create new original products,” he added.

This year, Master Therm plans to invest in expanding its warehouses and producing new types of equipment. “We expect interest in energy-efficient heat sources to grow again, and we do not want delivery times to stretch to months or even years again, as they did in 2021 and 2022,” Svoboda said. The company plans to start offering heat pumps that use climate-friendly propane; according to the director, it has already received preliminary orders for more than six hundred such units.