Zdenek Pelc cuts something of an odd figure at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monaco.

Instead of developing a new technology, the Czech Republic’s representative rescued an old one.

His company GZ Media is the world’s biggest producer of vinyl records. He claims to have been the last man standing when CDs chased vinyl out of the market in the late 1980s.

At one point, his company had produced 40 million vinyl albums. However, by 1994 it was producing just 300,000 to a dwindling group of analogue junkies.

Pelc said he kept the machines running half out of nostalgia and half to capture a shrinking volume of sales as others left the market.

"But like a phoenix from the ashes, it has returned," he told The Irish Times at the EY awards event.

He agreed with the thesis that the revival was partly down to nostalgia and partly a rebellion against the perfect “digital sound”.

But he also highlighted the fact that vinyl has a possessive quality that intangible downloads and streaming lacks. “The look and feel is superior to other formats,” he said.

Not only did vinyl survive the CD revolution, it is now thriving in a music buying industry dominated by iTunes and streaming sites such as Spotify.

Last year’s GZ Media’s sales eclipsed 18 million and Pelc forecasts they will hit 25 million for 2016.

New line

He also claims to be the only manufacturer in the world to have produced a new line of vinyl pressing machines, which have streamlined the process since its heyday in the early 1980s.

There are no reliable statistics for global sales of vinyl records, but Pelc reckons the company commands about 20 per cent of the market, having witnessed 7-10 per cent growth annually since the late 1990s, albeit from a low base.

In 2015, sales of vinyl records in the US, the world's largest market, grew by 30 per cent to just under 12 million. It marked the tenth consecutive year that sales have grown. Even Tesco is now stocking records in the old format.

Pelc joined GZ Media in the early 1980s, becoming an investor when the company was privatised after the fall of Communism, and later its owner. His 32 years in charge makes him the longest serving chief executive in Czech history.

In addition to vinyl, the company, which employs 2,000 people, makes CDs, DVDs and packaging for a range of companies and products, and boasts an annual turnover of $100 million.

Last year, the company acquired a vinyl record producing firm in Memphis and is currently in the process of building another near Toronto.