Hungarian meat processor to invest €5.4m in new facility
Under the plan, the facility will be fitted with a total floorspace of more than 2,000 square metres. About 50% of the investment is to be covered by funds Gallicoop acquired from the Hungarian Ministry for National Economy, according to senior company representatives.
The project is scheduled to be completed in the first half of next year.
Shifting export markets
“The Russian embargo, which was extended until the end of 2017, has heavily affected the sector, and the Russian market is lost to us,” István Erdélyi, the company’s president and chief executive, told local news agency MTI.
Gallicoop says it has a slaughtering capacity of some 42,000 tonnes (t) of live turkeys per year. An estimated 40-45% of its output is intended for export sales, which have been steadily rising over the past years, and the remainder is sold in the Hungarian market. Western Europe is the company’s main export destination, and it is responsible for sales of some 8,000t of various meat products per year.
Gallicoop says its main foreign markets include the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania and Croatia. Outside Europe, besides Russia, the firm exported its output to a number of markets in the Far East, including Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan, as well as to Africa and the Middle East, including the Republic of South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Saudi Arabia, among others, according to data from Gallicoop.
Investments in development
Erdélyi said that Gallicoop expects to post revenues in the range of HUF33.5bn (€109.4m) to HUF34bn (€111m) this year, and a profit of about HUF700m (€2.3m). This would represent an increase of 5.7% compared with the net profit of HUF662m (€2.2m) the company reported for 2016.
Gallicoop said the company has invested its profits in further raising its capacities. The Hungarian firm invests between HUF700m (€2.3m) and HUF800m (€2.6m) in various development projects each year. In 2015, Gallicoop completed a project worth about HUF328m (€1.1m) with the aim of enhancing the efficiency of its feed mixing facility and increasing the plant’s capacity. The investment allowed Gallicoop to expand its facility’s production capacity by about 14,000t per year. Furthermore, the company nearly tripled the plant’s storage capacity from 190t to 520t.
The company’s portfolio comprises a wide range of processed poultry meat products. These include hams, sausages, frankfurters, cold cuts, livers, pâtés, smoked meat products and others. In addition, the firm also produces halal meat.
Set up in 1989, Gallicoop is based in Szarvas, in the country’s south-eastern region. The Hungarian company has a workforce of about 1,000, and its facilities are ISO 9001-, 14001- and IFS-certified, according to data from Gallicoop.