New giga-investment in Hungary: Bosch announces huge expenditure

Robert Bosch Power Tool, a local unit of German engineering giant Bosch, has announced a HUF 70 billion (EUR 181 million) investment to set up a logistics centre and expand battery and tool manufacturing capacity in Miskolc, in northern Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said on Friday.

The government is supporting the investment

The government is supporting the investment with a HUF 10 billion (EUR 25.8 million) grant, he said. Hungary has weathered the past years’ crises well thanks to “one of the most competitive tax systems in the world, which created the most attractive environment to investors in central Europe,” he said.

Despite all difficulties, Hungary’s economy grew by 4.6 percent last year, the number of jobholders was above 4.7 million for six consecutive months, and exports jumped by 19 percent to EUR 142 billion, he said. Meanwhile, investments worth EUR 6.5 billion flowed into Hungary last year, creating high value-added jobs, he said.

Bosch, which employs some 20,000 people in Hungary, has brought hundreds of billions of forints worth of investments to Hungary in the past years. The investments helped improve Hungarian technology, Szijjártó said. Bosch is contributing to the government’s goal to “reindustrialisation and to move from Made in Hungary towards Invented in Hungary,” he added.

German companies are the largest group of investors in Hungary, and bilateral trade between the two countries hit a record EUR 60 billion by November last year, he said.

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A huge investment

Bosch, Miskolc, visual plan.

The company will invest more than HUF 54 billion to create a logistics and distribution center in Miskolc to meet the ever-increasing storage and distribution needs, and more than HUF 15.7 billion to expand its production capacity. The Hungarian government will provide a total of around HUF 10.2 billion in post financing non-refundable cash subsidies for the two investments on the basis of an individual government decision (EKD).

Seamless service in the international supply chain network

The aim of the large-scale investment is to create a highly automated warehouse structure in the Miskolc industrial park. The complex, which will cover almost 100,000 square meters, will serve several key logistics functions. The new structure will become one of the leading finished product distribution warehouses within the company’s Power Tools division in the Eastern European region.

The current regional service center performing packaging activities amongst others, which was opened in 2017 and is within the same industrial area as the Miskolc site, will be relocated there as well, and the site will also serve as a finished product and raw material warehouse.

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The Miskolc logistics center is part of Bosch’s international supply chain network of around 780 warehouses. Bosch employs 37,000 associates worldwide in procurement and logistics, supplying around 230 plants with parts and raw materials every day. They have a key role to play in ensuring a continuous, sustainable and flexible supply chain throughout the value chain to serve Bosch customers at a high level.

Capacity expansion for further optimised user experience

In 2018, the Miskolc plant became the European battery manufacturing competence center of the Bosch Power Tools division in Europe, based on its high-standard technological infrastructure, its special expertise, and its high production volume. The newly announced investment to increase capacity will drive the development and production of new batteries, cordless power and garden tools, boosting innovation.

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Source: MTI, Bosch: press release