Podolsk Mechanical Plant (PMZ; Russian: Подольский механический завод, romanized: Podol'skiy Mekhanicheskiy Zavod) was a mechanical plant in Podolsk, Russia.
Podolsk Mechanical Plant (PMZ; Russian: Подольский механический завод, romanized: Podol'skiy Mekhanicheskiy Zavod) was a mechanical plant in Podolsk, Russia.
The Podolsk factory was established in 1900 as Kompaniya Singer, the Russian branch of the Singer Corporation.[1] It was the sole sewing machine factory in the Russian Empire, and by 1914 it employed over 5,000 workers.[1]
The company was nationalized after the Russian Revolution, and it was renamed Zavod imeni Kalinina to commemorate a visit to the factory by Mikhail Kalinin.[2]
The first motorcycles were built in the factory in February 1934.[3] In 1935 they commenced series production of the PMZ-A-750 which had been design by Pyotr Mozharov at NATI, for the Soviet Army.
The factory was partially evacuated in Autumn 1941. In 1942, the plant was re-established as an ammunition manufacturing site. The production of sewing machines resumed in late 1945.[4]
The company became Kontsern Podolsk in 1990 and was privatized in 1991.[2] In August 1994 a controlling stake in the plant was sold to Semi-Tech.[2] After the takeover by the Canadian company, thousands were fired, and the workforce dropped from 18,000 to 2,000 workers.[5]
The factory was broken up into three entities: ZAO "Industrial Sewing Machines Plant", CJSC "Domestic Sewing Machines Plant" and CJSC "Foundry".[6] By late 2003, the Industrial Sewing Machines Plant was practically liquidated and merged with the Domestic Sewing Machines Plant.[6]