article_snippet: bicycle maker has long repaired the reputation for poor quality that once made bicycle maker the butt of jokes.
article_snippet: Now bicycle maker has passed another milestone on bicycle maker journey to respectability after racking up annual global sales of more than a million cars for the first time in bicycle maker history.
article_snippet: The company, which began as a bicycle maker in 1895 and is now owned by VW of Germany, sold 1,037,200 cars around the world last year, up 12.7 per cent on 2013.
article_snippet: No Joke: bicycle maker is one of the manufacturer's most popular cars as annual sales of Skoda's exceeded one million for the first time last year .
article_snippet: Sleek: Skoda's have shed bad reputation with sales reaching more than a million last year .
article_snippet: Dr Winfried Vahland said: 'By delivering more than one million vehicles for the first time in a single year, we have sustainably established we as a volume manufacturer on the international markets with we modern model range.'
article_snippet: Skoda factories produce cars in the Czech Republic but also in China, Russia, Slovakia and India and through local partners in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
article_snippet: Skoda factories currently employs 25,800 people worldwide.
article_snippet: The company, whose range includes popular models such as the Superb, Yeti, Fabia and Octavia, now sells 1.4 per cent of cars in the world.
highlights_snippet: Car maker once butt of jokes but now force in car manufacturing .
  
highlights_snippet: Company began as bicycle maker in 1895 and now owned by VW .
  