ZVVZ glorified 60 th birthday. It is more then sixty years since the start of construction of a new industrial area in Milevsko – the Janka Radotín plant. It happened at the end of summer – on 29th August 1948. The local political representation as well as the minister of industry, Gustav Kliment, was present when the foundation stone was laid.

The government decided about the investment at the beginning of that year. The reason was simple: to introduce industry to “rural” areas. The economic and political atmosphere a few years after World War II was favourable. Production in an unfinished hall began in 1950 and in the same year, on 16th November, it became the foundation factory of the Janka plant. The national company Janka Milevsko with five plants was formed on 31st December 1951. There were also plants in Brno, Radotín, Prague and Liberec.

However, it took seven more years until the name Plants for Production of Ventilation Equipment (Závody na výrobu vzduchotechnických zařízení – ZVVZ) appeared on 1st April 1958. It remained the same until 1993 when the name was changed to ZVVZ a.s.

The older generation can recall a short time when the plant was called Plant of the First Five-Year Plan (1954 to 1958), which was a forfeit to the organizational changes so typical of the 1950s: in 1953, Janka was divided into the national plant Janka Milevsko (with other plants in Brno, Rohatec and Bratislava) and the national plant Janka Radotín (with other plants of the original company). In the same year, subsidiaries became independent plants and Janka Milevsko was renamed Plant of the First Five-Year Plan in 1954. In 1957, the Písek foundry was incorporated. In 1958, the Plants for Production of Ventilation Equipment Milevsko were formed and they included plants in Milevsko, Liberec, Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Radotín and the Institute for Ventilation Research Prague – Malešice.

However, the company had already become the largest supplier of ventilation equipment in Czechoslovakia at that time – and it has maintained this position ever since. In the 1960s, a new production hall, administration buildings and a canteen were built in Milevsko and the group was extended by a plant in Prachatice. This plant was incorporated into ZVVZ during the construction by ČKD Praha in 1964. It launched operation three years later.

While the plants were getting bigger and bigger in the 1950s, they were “disappearing” in the 1960s – independent national companies were created in Radotín, Liberec, Nové Mesto as well as from the Research Institute.

In 1970, the directorate-general of the Czechoslovak Ventilation Plants was established. This directorate-general moved to Milevsko thirteen years later.

Its activity ended in 1989. The name of the company changed to Plants for Production of Ventilation Equipment, state enterprise (ZVVZ, s.p.). A year later, the form was changed to a joint-stock company. The plant in Prachatice became independent and Klima a.s. was established. Since 1993, the company has been called ZVVZ a.s. Two years later, the company became private through the second wave of coupon privatization. The modern era began.

The company adopted a division organization (the last divisions were formed in 2006 – Containers and Production). ZVVZ became a new subsidiary of the company Enven – Enven Engineering.