Czech billionaire Uhýrek to build 1,000 flats in Olomouc

Czech construction magnate Jaroslav Uhýrek, founder of the Gemo group and the 49th-richest Czech with a fortune of 13.8 billion crowns, has spoken about the rapid growth of his business: this year the company’s turnover will reach 9 billion crowns, with a target of 10 billion by 2027.

Uhýrek runs the company from an office in Olomouc overlooking the panorama of the historic city centre — the very city where, in 1990, together with two colleagues, Milan Válek and Boris Němeček, he founded Gemo. The young firm’s first contract was the reconstruction of a chapel in the village of Loučany near Olomouc, worth around two hundred thousand crowns.

Since then the company has grown into one of the biggest players in the Czech civil-engineering construction market. According to the entrepreneur, over the past 35 years Gemo has weathered Covid, the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy crisis, yet has remained stable and is now going through a period of extraordinary growth. “I’ve never been afraid of growth, but I always say it has to be kept under full control,” the businessman notes.

The company’s turnover grew from 5 billion crowns in 2024 to 7.5 billion last year, and is expected to reach 9 billion this year. According to Uhýrek, this growth rests on organic development — most of the profit is reinvested straight back into the business — and on carefully chosen acquisitions: last year the company completed a major acquisition deal.

As the business expands, Gemo is preparing to enlarge its Olomouc headquarters as well as open a new office in Prague, in the Hila building, which the company is constructing for billionaire Radim Passer’s Passerinvest. Besides its construction division, Uhýrek is also developing his own property projects, while part of his capital sits in a family holding that includes the NH Collection Olomouc Congress hotel, the Omega sports centre, and the Novum shopping centre in Prešov.

The entrepreneur also proudly points out that Gemo remains one of the few major Czech construction firms fully in Czech hands, even as the country’s construction market grows overheated — with rising labour costs, mounting bureaucracy, and fewer building permits being issued.

By the Around Prague newsroom