About the Company > Company Profile
The LIBREX company was founded in 1990. It was among the first companies to be formed after the fall of Communism. Starting as a small distribution company with five employees, LIBREX gradually developed into a middle sized company with 150 employees. Since 1993 the company has been opening new commercial businesses each year, such as one or two book, map and magazine shops. Today it operates 23 in Moravia in the Czech Republic and is one of the largest business networks that manage bookshops in the Czech Republic.
Another activity was the opening of a publishing house of the same name - LIBREX – aimed at children under 10 years. In only a few years the LIBREX children’s publishing house became one of the largest children’s publishing companies with greater production and export than the current publishing company of the competition (Albatros et al.).
Another important step in the company’s development was the purchase of the former department store in Ostrava in 2001. After the reconstructíon, which took only six months to finish, LIBREX opened the largest bookstore in any post-Communist country. It has six floors and a total space of 3500 m2 , houses the administration as well as a cafe, and offers more than 35000 books for sale in the amount of 220000 pieces of books everyday. The LIBREX House of Books received the prestigious House of the Year award in 2002 and became one Ostrava’s most interesting dominant features and a lively cultural center.
Besides the planned openings of new businesses in other cities, LIBREX would like to expand abroad and open its first store outside of the Czech Republic. We are currently negotiating with partners in Belgium, Slovakia and Romania.