Magazine: Business Days 2020 – Our conference wasn’t cancelled…

László Benedek
managing director
Viresol

Imre Tímár
owner
Tanner Trade

On the first day the moderators were László Benedek, managing director of Viresol and Imre Tímár, the owner of Tanner Trade.

Raymund Petz
member of the board of directors
GKI

The keynote speaker was Raymund Petz, a member of GKI’s board of directors. He revealed that according to the forecast of the European Commission, even if the EU’s economy keeps growing after the pandemic, the GDP will only reach the 2019 level by 2022.

Andreas Christou
managing director
RetailZoom

Andreas Christou, CEO of RetailZoom spoke about how COVID-19 increased the importance of those grocery stores that are close to where shoppers live, e.g. stores belonging Hungarian-owned retail chains. Shoppers visited these less often than before the pandemic, but they purchased almost twice as much.

Staying healthy and having a job matter the most

Wholesalers’ representative stepped on the stage first for a roundtable discussion.

Sándor Kovács
national sales director
METRO

Sándor Kovács, national sales director of METRO told: they had to achieve a balance between staying profitable and protecting jobs during the pandemic, and it very much seems that the company managed to pull this off.

István Dobi 
owner
Dél-100

István Dobi, the owner of Dél-100 revealed that the key to their success in the spring was being able to convince workers to back even those difficult steps that were necessary to achieve the company’s goals.

István N.Szabó
managing director
Z+D

István N. Szabó, managing director of Z+D said: for his company preserving liquidity was the main priority during the pandemic, which they managed to do with the help of supplier partners.

Gergely Bálint
director of corporate sales
Nestlé

Gergely Bálint, director of corporate sales at Nestlé explained that his company was able to cope with the crisis well, which has to do with its large portfolio and the fact that different business lines were affected differently by the lockdown.

Zsolt Vuleta
general manager and sales director
Borsodi Sörgyár

Borsodi Brewery reacted to the pandemic by transforming its operations and adapting its marketing programmes to the restructuring taking place in retail channels – said general manager and sales director Zsolt Vuleta.

György Galántai
commercial director
Hell Energy

György Galántai, commercial director of Hell Energy revealed that they decided to look on the difficult period as an opportunity, so they innovated to satisfy new-type needs, recruited new workers, etc.

Csaba Kanizsai Tóth
managing director
FÁN Group

Csaba Kanizsai Tóth, managing director of FÁN Group stressed the importance of constant communication with customers and trade partners.

László Hovánszky
managing director
METSPA

László Hovánszky, managing director of Metspa called attention to the importance of the superb performance by suppliers during the first wave of the pandemic.

Record sales by Hungarian retailers

Tamás Csongovai
head of marketing
SuperShop

László Szilágyi
owner
ActionCOACH ML

Tamás Csongovai, head of marketing at SuperShop and László Szilágyi, the owner of ActionCOACH ML were the moderators of the next roundtable discussion, where the representatives of Hungarian-owned retail chains, franchises, tobacco shops and pharmacies reported: they realised record sales in March, but this was followed by a more difficult period. The representatives of Hungarian-owned retail chains, franchises, tobacco shops and pharmacies realised record sales in March.

László Szili
commercial director
Reál Hungária

László Szili, commercial director of Reál Hungária told that the panic-buying trend arrived to their stores with a small delay, and the chain profited from this when competitors had already run out of products.

András Papp
managing director
Manna ABC

András Papp, managing director of Manna ABC spoke about how many people in Budapest switched to night shopping to reduce the risk of catching the virus, so Manna stores stayed open at night.

Kornél Saltzer
managing director
Dél-100

Kornél Saltzer, managing director of Dél-100 informed that both their wholesale and retail units were winners of the pandemic situation, as sales grew by double-digit numbers.

Zoltán Tóth
managing director
Dohánybolt Ellátó

Zoltán Tóth, managing director of Tobacco Supplies (Trafik.hu), owner of DigInStore and operator of TrafikTV gave a presentation about the sales performance of tobacco shops: although like-for-like cigarette sales were down 10 percent, the share of FMCG products in sales by tobacco shops is getting bigger.

Zsuzsanna Lóczki
sales and marketing director
K+K Family

Zsuzsanna Lóczki, sales and marketing director of K+K Family talked about how they kept the new workers that had been recruited just before the first wave of the pandemic: retailers accepted the price increase they proposed and in certain cases new contracts were signed.

György Sóskuti
corporate sales director
Bonafarm

György Sóskuti, corporate sales director of Bonafarm Group explained that since the lockdown came just before Easter, the group diverted large quantities of fresh products from the HoReCa channel to retail and from export to domestic supply.

Develop, modernise, innovate

Mr Saltzer shared the lessons they learned from their store modernisation programme, e.g. sales by their modernised stores jumped minimum 30 percent in small towns and villages. Mr Tóth added that if a shop gives shoppers what they expect and a little more, consumers will value them more than the units of large and well-known chains. Mr Papp said he was very sorry that the Budapest region was left out of development funding programmes, and he hopes that from next year retailers in the capital city will also be granted access to financial resources.

Zoltán Soós
CEO
Wonderduck Agency

Zoltán Soós, CEO of Wonderduck Agency Zrt. gave a presentation that compared classic plastic loyalty cards with interactive digital cards and applications, introducing their WonderPass solution, which is much more efficient than classic e-DM solutions.

Expect the unexpected…

Ms Lóczki told that this year’s biggest lesson to be learned was the importance of reacting rapidly, especially to changes in consumption habits. Mr Sóskuti underlined the fact that the whole market shifted in the direction of thinking collectively and increasing efficiency, as this strategy is more effective – and retailers have agreed with manufacturers in this. Mr Saltzer thinks there is no way back: the pandemic generated new consumption habits that are transforming shopping for good. Mr Tóth called attention to the importance of localisation.

István Korbély
owner
Eurofamily

Mr Korbély said the pandemic shed light on the fact that retailers and product manufactures must always calculate with unexpected situations.

nézve – szerinte kulcskérdés lesz az üzletmenet szempontjából, hogyan tér vissza a vásárlóközönség a járványt követően.

A special cause: Hungarian products

Zoltán Házi
vice president
retail services dept. at BKIK

Sándor Baja
managing director
Randstad

In the end-of-day roundtable discussion the representatives of associations, organisations and interest representing bodies were talking about the most important topics. The moderators were Zoltán Házi, vice president of the retail services department of the Budapest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BKIK) and the owner of HáSiTó and Sándor Baja, managing director of Randstad.

Ildikó Balázs
co-president
OKSZ

Ildikó Balázs, co-president of the National Trade Association (OKSZ) revealed that this spring OKSZ members strengthened their cooperation with suppliers and basically with every partner, in order to ensure there is uninterrupted product supply during the COVID-crisis.

Katalin Neubauer
secretary general
MNKSZ

Katalin Neubauer, secretary general of the Hungarian National Trade Association (MNKSZ) added that the communication between the two associations was honest, and this can remain so in the long run.

Katalin Süle
agriculture vice president
NAK

Katalin Süle, agriculture vice president of the Hungarian Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) stated: it would be key to give priority to Hungarian groceries, as the production criteria here is one of the strictest in the world, and at the same time Hungarian farmers and food makers would also profit from this.

Eszter Benedek
managing director
Hungarian Product Nonprofit Kft.

As a reaction to this Eszter Benedek, managing director of Hungarian Product Nonprofit Kft. called attention to how those food companies that process imported ingredients were facing sourcing problems during the pandemic.

Dr. Lajos Bognár
state secretary for food chain supervision Ministry of Agriculture

Dr Lajos Bognár, state secretary for food chain supervision at the Ministry of Agriculture expressed his view that food adulteration can only be fought if the state doesn’t only perform inspections, but also creates the necessary regulatory background and educates the public.

Tamás Éder, president of the Federation of Responsible Food Manufacturers (FÉSZ) opined that retailers can only be expected to put Hungarian products on store shelves if these groceries are competitive.

Efficiency and competitiveness

Mr Baja asked the question: Can Hungarian agriculture be competitive volume-wise and if yes, how?

Tamás Éder
president
Federation of Responsible Food Manufacturers (FÉSZ)

Mr Éder answered that Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium have already showed that large quantities can be also be produced in small countries.

Mr Bognár said that agri-businesses can become more competitive by investing in innovation, digitalisation, automation and robotics.

We should talk more about the importance of a healthy diet

Emese Antal
diatetitian, head of
TÉT Platform

Have the eating habits of Hungarians changed? Emese Antal, dietitian, sociologist and the head of TÉT Platform (Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Platform) revealed that Hungarians now stay healthy longer than before, in part because people have realised the importance living a healthy life. Still, she thinks that despite the positive changes we should talk about the importance of healthy diet more often.