• Do you have any concerns that the fast-paced growth will cause your company to meet the same fate as Hajdú-Bét Rt? Or you have drawn the lessons and progress slowly and carefully?
- I do have some cautiousness in me but if one assesses the risks, then the concerns may be minimized. Before making a decision about any improvement, we examine how Western European integrated companies of similar size progressed. We try to use their experiences to ensure that the progress we make is safely paced. It is without doubt that growth is essential in this era. In every industry, it is concentration and improvement of efficiency that enables a company to retain its competitiveness. We are no exception either.

Rescuing labour

• The fall of Hajdú-Bét provided an opportunity for your company to grow faster. Whose idea was it to apply for the novel job retention grant?
- There were a number of factors that helped the continuation of operations in the Kisvárda factory. Hajdú-Bét went bankrupt precipitously, making its 500-strong staff unemployed. In cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and László Gazda, Chairman of the County Assembly, we managed to develop a scheme as a result of which not only 211 jobs were preserved but we also increased the number to 468 within just a year. The achievements certainly dispelled all doubts as to whether it was worth spendind 140 million HUF on the preservation of 211 jobs.

A Recipe for Success

• Over the past few years, whenever one heard any news about the poultry market it certainly concerned Asian avian diseases and the bankruptcy of major domestic companies. Encouraging news and examples were scarce. Does the story of your Nyírkércs-based company belong to the latter group?
- There are some smaller enterprises that have achieved similar success in their category as we did in our own. In the category of large companies, where Master Good Group belongs, there are indeed only a few companies that operate successfully in the faltering poultry sector. The recipe for success is a homogenous ownership with a homogeneous will. This applies to our company, whose 100% is owned by our family. It is also important for human resources to be qualified and innovative, which is the case in our company. Furthermore, both the enterprise as a whole and each of its employees should have prospects for the future. No money will buy a ‘ready-made’ management team that is ready to act, efficient and has an appropriate strategy: the members of such a team have to be recruited, trained and continuously motivated. The success of our employees guarantees the success of the company, too, which of course also requires a secure financial background.

• How much are you involved in daily matters? Do you interfere in the decisions of the management, and if so, when?
- I have excellent colleagues who work successfully even under pressure. Both of my sons and daughter-in-laws work at the company, and they represent the owners’ interests regarding strategic issues. I tend to be more involved in strategic issues and the analysis of trends and opportunities in order to enable the company to progress without having to take unreasonable risks.

Supermarket Chains

• Today, it is the sale of organic chicken that enables a company to increase its market presence because the price of regular poultry is the lowest in the past few years.
- The organic chicken project is not new to our company. We realized in time that regular poultry operations did not yield the expected profits. There is always demand for goods whose quality is higher than the average and are processed to a higher degree. A good example of such goods is organic chicken, which is given special feed and is free-range. We are the only company in Hungary that can provide both of these conditions. This product made the company well-known two years ago. At that time, we did not even dream of being able to purchase a slaughter-house, which we eventually did due to Hajdú-Bét’s bankruptcy. Thanks to the good reputation of our organic chicken line, our regular poultry products, which we subsequently began to supply to supermarket chains, were received with trust and had great sales potentials. Quality and mass products complement each other perfectly because they target different consumer groups. Our organic chicken was the “Trojan Horse” which opened the gates of the most important supermarket chains for our products.

The Group consists of two agricultural and animal breeding companies and two food processing companies, which employ a total of 1,058 people. The former two companies produce feed, baby chicks, chickens and raw materials for the food-processing companies. Processing into finished goods takes place in the Kisvárda and Petneháza facilities. The company was founded under the name Baromfi-Coop Kft ten years ago and employed 5 persons and achieved 26 million HUF sales income in the first year. This year, the Group’s sales income totalled 17.6 billion HUF.

Futár / 8 June 2005