Northern Moravia, in the wake of the Czechoslovakian “Velvet Revolution”, and of the recent separation of the Czech and Slovak Republics, appeared ripe for investment from Western Europe, as a means of regenerating the manufacturing economy. The region around Ostrava had long been dependent on coal mining and heavy producer-goods industries such as steelmaking, some of which enterprises had become unviable under newly-emerged free market conditions.

In 1993, Andrew Sadleir led a team in carrying out a detailed feasibility study for a potential new light industrial investment by a UK-based manufacturer. This entailed an extended fact-finding visit to the Czech Republic, during the course of which comprehensive and detailed enquiries were made of numerous official and commercial organisations and individuals.

The proposed site was on the derelict, partially-constructed groundworks for a new coking plant, a project no longer viable under free-market conditions, and abandoned with the advent of the new régime; but not before having devastated a part of the village of Stonava.

The team's wide-ranging brief addressed economic, legal and environmental issues, as well as the technical problems of adapting a difficult industrial site, in a region of massive mining-related ground movements.