A Czech arms-maker, founded by the father of Michal Strnad, who is now its chief executive and majority owner. CSG went public in January 2026 at a valuation of around €25bn ($29bn). It employs 14,000 people and operates more than 30 production sites around the world.
CSG brought in €6.7bn in revenue in 2025, up 12-fold from 2021. Four-fifths of that is defence-related, placing the company among Europe's ten biggest arms-makers. It is the continent's second-largest maker of ammunition, behind only Rheinmetall. Three-quarters of sales are made in Europe, with America accounting for much of the rest. Most production is based in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where wages are much cheaper than elsewhere in the West.
CSG has played a central role in the Czech Ammunition Initiative, led by Petr Pavel, the country's president, and financed by Western allies, which has supplied Ukraine with bullets and shells. Sales directly to Ukraine accounted for 27% of CSG's total in 2025. The company has also benefited from the replenishment of European ammunition stocks. In December 2025 CSG signed a seven-year deal with Slovakia worth up to €58bn to supply ammunition to members of the European Union as part of a joint rearmament initiative.
CSG has been on an acquisition spree. In 2022 it bought a majority stake in Fiocchi, an Italian producer of small-calibre ammunition. In 2024 it acquired Kinetic Group, an American peer. In March 2026 it announced it would buy 49% of Hirtenberger Defence Systems, an Austrian maker of mortar shells. In January 2026 the company unveiled a joint venture with Hellenic Defence Systems, a Greek state-owned arms-maker, to produce TNT, among other things.
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