The smell of rubber is everywhere as the aging machine press coughs up a tray full of hockey pucks that will hit the Olympic ice in February.

Fresh from the oven, the black rubber discs have to cool and be decorated with the Olympic logo before being shipped to Italy for the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

They are made by Gufex, a family company with eight staff members and run by three women, based in the eastern Czech village of Katerinice.