After COLOP was founded in 1980 by Mr. Karl Skopek, the production of a new self-inking line started on a production site near Wels in 1981. The newcomer in the stamp business was soon considered as a stimulation of this line of business, and active “representatives of the first hour” were found in several markets, who laid the foundation stone of a continuous upward trend in their markets.

A considerable extension of the production site was necessary soon. This was realized in 1984 with the move to Wels, where a turnover of appr. 800.000.--€ could be reached on 5.000 m² during the first year.

From this extended basis on a permanent expansion occurred with special growth rates in some years, after a new product line has successfully been launched. Also the fruits of the build-up work and long-term marketing measures were reflected by rather high sales increases in a number of export markets.

The world-wide distribution network was strengthened by several COLOP-owned distribution branches or involvement in main markets like Germany (1986), France (1991), the Slovak Republic (1992) the Czech Republic (1993) and in Romania (2000).


Furthermore, several companies have been acquired in order to achieve COLOP’s strategic goals and further enhance its position in specific markets with the targeted product lines. Thus, in the year 2006 the Swedish company Unigraphics was taken over by COLOP together with its subsidiaries as well as the British company Mark C. Brown. 2009 the COLOP owned UK based company Mark C. Brown  incorporated the famous British company William Jones Clifton (WJC Ltd.) to strengthen the market-position in UK.

Nowadays COLOP is one of the world-wide leading manufacturers of modern marking devices with more than 120 regularly supplied export markets and an export rate of more than 98%.