Ford opens new regional service center in Hungary

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade highlighted the fact that the service centre sector is one of the most highly developed economic sectors in Hungary, with 100 service centres already operating in Hungary providing jobs to 46 thousand Hungarians, mainly young professionals with several university degrees who speak several languages.

“Service centres are providing a job opportunity to increasing numbers of young Hungarians, thanks to which is it no longer worth thinking about going to work abroad”, Mr. Szijjártó said. He also spoke about the fact that the confidence of American investors in Hungary is clearly indicated by the fact that American enterprises represent the second largest group of investors after the Germans, and the some 1700 American companies operating in Hungary provide jobs to over 100 thousand people.

The United States is Hungary largest export market outside the European Union,

and bilateral trade flow increased by 5 percent during the first six months of this year to reach almost 3 billion dollars, the Minister told the press.

Ford’s regional director Viktor Molnár told the press that together with the new service centre, Ford is now present in Hungary at three locations and that 99 percent of its employees are Hungarian.

During the past five years Ford has brought more and more of its European functions to Hungary. Amongst others, Hungarian centres are responsible for, or will be responsible for the company’s European financial, pricing, production management, product management, marketing and controlling tasks, as well as several global tasks that serve 41 different markets around the world, he explained, also mentioning that the establishment of the new service centre is part of the reorganisation process within the framework of which Ford’s full HR administration will be concentrated at just three centres worldwide, one of which will be the service centre in Budapest.

The number of people employed by Ford in Hungary has tripled over the past five years, and together with the new service centre now exceeds 500.

This number will increase to 600 by the end of the year and staff numbers will increase further next year, he said. Mr. Molnár also told reporters that Ford has a continuously expanding supplier network in Hungary incorporating 40 enterprises.

The suppliers to Ford’s European plants realised 580 billion forints (EUR 1.76bn) in turnover last year, and thanks to Ford’s orders generate 1.7 percent of Hungary’s GDP. Ford’s Hungarian suppliers employ a total of over 69 thousand people.

Photo by Mike from Pexels

Source: kormany.hu