The Gramophone Company (Czechoslovakia) Ltd., spol. s r.o.

Czech branch of the British record company The Gramophone Co. Ltd.. The branch was established in February 1922 when The Gramophone Co. Ltd. bought the former pressing plant of the Österreichische Grammophon-Gesellschaft m.b.H. in Ústi nad Labem (in German: Aussig an der Elbe). The factory pressed records for sale in Czechoslovakia, but also in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Austria, and, to some extent, Poland. Until 1923, however, The Gramophone Co. left the management of its continental European affairs in Vienna, Austria. Then management finally moved to Ústí n. Labem, only to be relocated to Vienna in May 1930. Shellac records were pressed in Ústí n. Labem until the end of 1938. Then record production was moved to Prague. After the war, the Czech government nationalized the company on October 24, 1945 (Beneš decrees - 100/1945 Sb.) and incorporated it into a new company based in Prague, [u]Gramofonové Závody, národní podnik[/u].