The history of the Škoda brand dates back to the engineering plant founded in Pilsen in 1859. From 1869 until 1900, Emil Škoda gradually expanded the factory and added a foundry, forge, steelworks and arms factory. During the First World War, the company became the largest arms manufacturer of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

In the 1920s, with the investment of French capital, it switched to peacetime production on a larger scale and its production programme included castings, forgings, locomotives, tractors, cars, electric cars, road vehicles, traction engines, aircraft engines, aircraft, river boats, excavators, cranes, bridges, steel structures, machine tools, hydraulic presses, steam turbines, diesel engines, electro technical equipment, tobacco machines, compressors, complete equipment for sugar factories, distilleries, breweries, power plants, slaughterhouses, and later also trolleybuses. In addition to the peacetime programme, arms production continued to develop.

In 1923, the trademark of a winged arrow in a circle was adopted. At the end of the 1920s, the Škodovy závody group became one of the most important companies not only in Czechoslovakia but also in Europe. The production programme was very extensive at that time and continued to grow. It had a wide sales network abroad.

In 1925, Škodovy závody acquired the Laurin and Klement car plant in Mladá Boleslav as part of a merger. During World War II, Škodovy závody became part of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring Group, and the main focus was again on arms production. In April 1945, the Pilsen company was heavily bombed. After the war, a national administration was established, and a year later Škodovy závody became a national enterprise.

In the early 1950s, the company significantly changed its production programme, abandoned arms production and many branches of general engineering. It began to focus on heavy engineering and became a significant Czechoslovak producer of electric locomotives, steam turbines, generators for steam turbines, large excavators for mines, rolling mills, heavy machine tools, hydraulic presses, transformers, trolleybuses and tobacco machines. At the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies, it was designated as the general contractor of nuclear power plants. It maintained the position of engineering giant, but its products went mainly to the markets of the then Eastern bloc and developing countries.

In 1993, the Škoda Group was privatised. The extensive production programme had to be scaled back and the company underwent complex restructuring. After further organisational and legal restructuring in 2000, a decision was made as to which production branches the company would keep and further develop, and which would operate under a new owner. In the first plan, it focused on the fields of conventional power engineering and transport engineering, later it began to focus fully on transport engineering and its key products include low-floor trams, electric locomotives, suburban train units, trolleybuses, traction engines and complete drives for transport systems.

In 2018, the ŠKODA Group was taken over by the PPF Group. ŠKODA INVESTMENT a.s. owns an extensive portfolio of ŠKODA and OKŘÍDLENÝ ŠÍP trademarks and other related rights and coordinates intellectual property rights for Škoda Group companies and some other users of ŠKODA and OKŘÍDLENÝ ŠÍP trademarks. ŠKODA INVESTMENT a.s. sets the global development strategy of the ŠKODA and OKŘÍDLENÝ ŠÍP brands of the Škoda Group and enforces the rights to them. The goal of ŠKODA INVESTMENT a.s. is the further development of the ŠKODA and OKŘÍDLENÝ ŠÍP brands and the related trademark portfolio and strengthening of their reputation.