Pick to mark sesquicentenary with capacity expansion

Pick to mark sesquicentenary with capacity expansion

Hungarian meat processor Pick Szeged could start building another plant in Szeged (SE Hungary) as soon as next year, CEO László Sutka said at an event on Tuesday organized to mark the 150th anniversary of the companyʼs foundation.   

 

The plant, to be built on a 100-hectare plot on the outskirts of the city, will boost capacity to make Pickʼs flagship salami products by 30%, Sutka was cited as saying by state news agency MTI.

Pickʼs two existing plants in Szeged, together with its plants in Alsómocsolád and Baja, in the southwest of the country, turn out 40,000 tonnes of processed meat a year, including 11,000 tonnes of its famed winter salami, Sutka said. He added that the added capacity would be used primarily to fill export orders.

Pick controls 15% of the branded meat product market in Hungary, making it market leader, noted MTI. Exports account for 25% of turnover. Pickʼs biggest export market is Germany, but it delivers to a total of 35 countries. The companyʼs oldest foreign partnership is with Swedenʼs Alexander Grünfeld, to whom it has been making deliveries for 76 years.

Pick is a member of vertically integrated agribusiness Bonafarm, owned by billionaire businessman Sándor Csányi, also the chairman and CEO of OTP Bank. It is the biggest member of the group, generating HUF 63 billion of Bonafarmʼs consolidated revenue of HUF 266 bln last year. Pick is also the groupʼs largest employer, with a headcount of 2,100.

Pick founder Mark Pick received his business license in 1869, when he was 26 years old. Having learned to make salami in the south of Italy, he adjusted his own recipe to Hungarian ingredients and Hungarian tastes. Pick uses the same recipe today, noted MTI.

 

Source: Budapest Business Journal

Photo: Szeged.hu