Question: Recently the 15-year old Hungarian Brand Association held its general meeting. A new president was elected: Tamás Ács, the managing director of Mars Hungary. How would you summarise the meeting, what do you expect from this year and what will you do first as president?

Answer:
My first task is to say thank you to all my fellow members for putting their trust in me. At the meeting we voted on the 2009 annual report and elected new officials. Last year we evaluated relevant legislation and introduced a new competition law code. We organised successful workshops with Nielsen. We put lots of work into managing conflicts between manufacturers and retailers, for instance we managed to reach an agreement with a retail chain and they stopped advertising in a way that harms the interests of brand manufacturers. At the open session of the general meeting, we mainly discussed consumer protection. MP László Koszorús, who worked out FIDESZ’s consumer protection policy, was our guest lecturer and we conducted a transparent dialogue.

At the moment, we keep monitoring the new government’s programme and it is a big question what kind of ministries and offices they will set up and to which of these retail and food industry will belong. Earlier we defined our objectives in a programme called Agenda 2010. It is now time to evaluate what was realised from this programme and to set out new goals for the medium term. We intend to highlight the creation of values for the economy and society by brand manufacturers. In terms of competition law, we wish to make the difference clear between private label products and manufacturer brands. We will also try to minimise tension between retailers and suppliers.