Popco, the little glass and filigree company from Czech Republic you’ve never heard of.

Popco is a Czech manufacturer of glass and jewelry, founded in 1989 by the Podzimek family. Based in Jablonec nad Nisou, the historic epicenter of Bohemian glassmaking, the factory specializes in hand-crafted perfume flacons, costume jewelry, and custom metal components for the fashion industry.

Historical Timeline1989: Popco is established shortly after the Velvet Revolution, capitalizing on Jablonec's centuries-old reputation for glass and bead production.

We found the company in the early 2000s, but unfortunately the husband Jiri had passed away, leaving his wife Milena to run the fledgling business alone. She had her best friend helping her as an unofficial employee. None of them spoke English, so she called her adult daughter to come in and translate for them, and for us too, as we didn’t speak Czech. The company transitioned from a small operation to an international exporter, basically after meeting us and our tour group of international buyers, heralding from the U.S, Canada, Australia, the U.K. and various European countries. We were impressed that it was such a mechanical machine driven factory, totally female owned and operated. The owner/widow Milena proudly explained that her husband Jiri built all the filigree machinery himself by hand. And that now she and her friend operates it.

They blend traditional handcrafting techniques with contemporary design That they design.

Present: The factory continues to operate out of its headquarters at Dlouhá Street in Jablonec, a residential neighborhood with the factory floor in the lower half of the house and she lives in the top half of the house. When we first met her we were her first international customers, and now they have expanded to a physical retail shop on Soukenná street, supplying both wholesale fashion brands and retail customers.

Core Products & Offerings: Perfume bottles (flacons), gift sets, oil lamps, and decorative vases.Bijou & Accessories: Necklaces, earrings, brooches, and custom metal fashion components.Popco specializes in combining historical manufacturing techniques with custom craftsmanship.Toiletry Glass: They are known globally for their exquisite, Versailles-style glass perfume flacons and oil lamps.Metalwork & Fashion: Popco also produces precise metal parts, components for the fashion and garment industries, and custom giftware.

The company is still very small, but now employs several workers including her friend, on a full time basis. Her daughter still had to take the day off from her full time job at a local bank to translate for us when Jme came shopping with her tour group this May, 2026.

So as small as Popco is, it might not ever get bigger, but their line has grown much bigger and diverse since we found them. I hope they make it.

This is most of what Jme bought, the other members of the tour gobbled up the rest.