Colt CZ has announced it will grow its legacy operations in Hungary to help meet global demand for the company's firearm platforms.
Founded in 1936, CZ has long been based in Czechia, or the Czech Republic, and has only expanded to Hungary in the past decade. Despite differences in language and culture, the countries share a long and often common history, including being part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, and membership in a host of economic and military alliances over the years. Today, both are NATO and EU members, joining side by side in 1999 and 2007, respectively.
It was in conjunction with those alliances that CZ, with the blessing of the Czech government, signed a 10-year €100 million deal with the Hungarian government in 2018 that allowed the Hungarian state-owned defense concern, HM Arzenal, to produce up to 200,000 guns domestically under license. The designs that were part of that deal included Bren 2 carbines and Scorpion EVO 3s as well as P-07 and P-10 9mm pistols, all built in a new factory in the town of Kiskunfélegyháza, about 70 miles from Budapest.
The Colt CZ Group holds a majority share in the operation, with the Hungarian state-owned company N7 Holding Ltd maintaining a 49 percent stake. Colt CZ advises it fully controls all production activities at the site and all processes will be supervised by CZ specialists.
An English language page maintained by the company says that the Kiskunfélegyháza plant, in addition to making firearms for the Hungarian military, produces components "for the Colt CZ Group's manufacturing plants in the Czech Republic, Canada, and the USA."
In addition to the manufacturing plant, the company lists a branch of Colt Technology Services in Budapest, Hungary's capital city.
As a side note, it is nice to see robust firearms manufacturing return to Hungary. The country long had a respected gun-making tradition with well-known Hungarian firms including Danuvia and Fegyver- es Gepgyar, or FEG/FegArmy, with the former ceasing production in 1998 and the latter halting its gun lines in 2004. FEG has since stated that it plans to reenter the small arms market, but its only product thus far is the HD-18 rifle, a Dragunov clone that is in low-rate production.
