Magazine: Brands are the engine of growth

Dr. Ágnes Fábián
president
Branded Goods Association Hungary

Dr Ágnes Fábián, president of Branded Goods Association Hungary (BGA) and managing director of Henkel Magyarország Kft. talked to our magazine about 2017 from brand owners’ perspective: ‘2017 continued the growth trend in the Hungarian economy. In line with this, retail sales were rising – for almost 5 years in a row now – and were approximately 30 percent higher than in January 2010. The FMCG market produced a 4.5-percent sales growth. More and more consumers are upgrading to more expensive, higher-quality products.

From the perspective of our members we can say that 2017 brought many product launches. Manufacturer brands were selling well but the proportion of sales realised in promotion is still high. The expansion of discount supermarkets and private label products represents a major challenge for brand manufacturers. Last year Bacardi, Brown-Forman and Globus became members of the Branded Goods Association. This year BGA’s goal is to have at least 70 members.

In 2018 the association will start important projects in the fields of sustainability and demonstrating the economic weight and role of member companies to the relevant government offices. As for last year’s achievements, BGA participated in the work of the Minister of Justice-chaired National Board Against Counterfeiting and at the Business Days conference we hosted a very successful panel meeting for CEOs for the sixth time, discussing the topic of how brands create economic and social values.’. //