Duocor inaugurates EUR 9.6m expansion in Hungary

Duocor Ipari inaugurated a 3.2 billion forint (EUR 9.6m) expansion at its base in Makó (SE Hungary) on Tuesday.

Duocor added to production capacity for institutional furniture, creating 65 jobs, said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. The government supported the investment with a 635 million forint grant, he added.

Szijjártó said that thanks to recent years’ investment projects and high exports Hungary was among the winners of the new global economic era. Hungary has the fastest growing economy in the European Union and unemployment has dropped to 3.3 percent from the earlier 12.5 percent, he said.

Hungary’s international competitiveness is well demonstrated by the fact that it is ranked 92nd globally based on its population and at the same time 34th based on exports, Szijjártó said.

German companies have played an important role in the successful transformation of Hungary’s economy, he said. Bilateral trade totalled 54 billion euros last year and Hungary’s exports to Germany grew by 60 percent in ten years, he added. Germany is the most important investor in Hungary, with 6,000 German companies employing 300,000 Hungarians, he said. The government signed strategic cooperation agreements with 101 German companies in the past five and a half years as a result of which 2,000 billion forints worth of investment was carried out in Hungary, Szijjártó said.

Duocor owner Michael Stegner said the new production hall, outfitted with the latest technology, as well as the company’s well-trained staff, would allow the company to meet new challenges.

Duocor had revenue of 18.4 million euros last year, public records show. It employed a staff of 347.

Duocor is a unit of Germany’s ASS group, a family-owned business that supplies public institutions with furniture.

Source: mti