Personal

Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to share my Christmas poppy seed roll baking experiences with you, but I do want to tell you something personal. This is the last editorial I am writing while I am still in my 40s. Many of you know that I plan to live for 126 years, but I have heard it from others several times that above 50 you are already listening to side B of that record – even if I can’t identify with this idea in any sense whatsoever. Still, facts are facts, and numbers never lie!

For me the next year is going to be a celebratory one, in spite of all the expected hardships! Not only because in early 2023 a dreaded birthday is waiting for me, but also because next year will be the 50th anniversary of my darling mother starting to work in retail, which she is still doing – to the happiness of many customers. I believe that all the applause I got in the last 25 years, standing next to my colleagues and partners, was the result of what she had taught me. Perseverance, dedication, ambition, loving my work, a fighting spirit, enthusiasm, supporting others, loyalty…the list could go on forever – each one of these are characteristics that if I have a little of them in me, in large part it is because of her, she gave them to me and I will always be grateful to her for this!

Well, let’s leave these emotional thoughts behind for a while and let’s focus on the present issue of Trade magazin, because it brings the closure of a very important year.

Just like every year so far, this one was unlike any other before it. We broke many business records: in terms of sales revenue and operating costs, the number of participants at our programmes, the growth in the number of advertisers in our magazine, but unfortunately in fluctuation too.

We have prepared with several different scenarios for next year, but right now we are only working with scenario “A”, and we are doing our best so that we won’t even have to take a passing glance at the others. Obviously this can only be done if our partners can operate following their number one scenario as well. One thing is for sure: the next year is going to pass too, just as quickly as this one did. Unfortunately this is the only thing we can be sure about.

In this issue of the magazine you can read about the last two days of the biggest Business Days conference so far, and about a few comprehensive surveys too. We publish the list of products bearing the Hungarian Product trademark, the business results of some of our wholesaler, importer and distributor partners, and we report on what we saw at the biggest food industry trade fair of the year, SIAL Paris. The winners of the StarStore – Év Kereskedője award are introduced, and we share with you all of the events Trade magazin is going to organise next year, from the smallest to the biggest. On the cover you can read something we are very proud of: it is a great honour for Trade magazin to have been selected by the organiser Hungexpo as the official journal and special media partner of the SIRHA Budapest trade show in 2024!

We are putting this recognition, together with our 7th Business Superbrands and 6th MagyarBrands award, the award we got from Hungarian Product, the special award that the Hungarian Marketing Association honoured us with, and the certificate of honour we received from Minister of Agriculture Dr István Nagy at the Business Days conference under the Christmas tree this year.

Dear readers and partners, we are wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a successful New Year! 

Best regards,

Zsuzsanna Hermann, Editor in Chief