Hungarian meat firms invest to boost capacity
Gallicoop has completed a project worth around HUF328m (€1.1m) which is designed to enhance the efficiency of the firm’s feed mixing plant and raise the facility’s capacity. As a result of the latest expansion, the plant’s production capacity was expanded by some 14,000 tonnes per year, according to the company’s chief executive István Erdelyi. The company also expanded the facility’s storage capacity from 190 tonnes to 520 tonnes. The plant was launched in 1996.
The investment “will improve the efficiency of production management and manufacturing,” Erdelyi said in a statement.
Revenues up
The investment is expected to further raise the firm’s sales for 2015. Last year, Gallicoop posted revenues of HUF33.6bn (€108m), an increase of 4% compared with a year earlier. The company’s output for 2014 rose to some 32,000 tonnes, up 8% compared with 2013. Of these, 24,800 tonnes were processed turkey meat, an increase of 3% from a year earlier, as indicated by figures from Gallicoop.
The company’s export sales were also up last year by 11% to HUF13.1bn (€42.2m). This means that Gallicoop generated close to 39% of its revenues for 2014 from sales to foreign markets. However, data from company suggests that last year, the growth rate of its export sales was slower than in 2013, when Gallicoop’s exports rose by a robust 22%.
The meat processor is based in Szarvas, in Hungary’s south-eastern part, and it is currently operated by a workforce of more than 900 employees.
Cold storage capacities expanded
Meanwhile, Hungary’s meat retail and wholesale trader Novro Kft has launched a new cold storage facility in Birján in south west Hungary. The project was worth some HUF600m (€1.9m), of which HUF134m (€430,000), which represents a stake of about 22.3% of the total project value, was secured from an investment grant provided by the European Union. Under the project, the facility was extended by 1,500 sq m with a capacity for about 600 tonnes of meat.
Novro is primarily active in the Hungarian market, but it also exports to neighbouring Romania, as well as Poland and Croatia, the company’s chief executive József Novreczky János told local news agency MTI.
Based in Birján, the firm employs around 50 people and distributes a wide range of meat products, including processed poultry and pork meat. In 2014, Novro reported revenues of HUF4.5bn (€14.5m), according to data released by the company.
On average, in 2014, Hungarians consumed 32kg of poultry meat and 28 kg of pork per capita annually, according to figures released by local industry association Poultry Products Council.
