Vénusz, one of the most renowned brand names in Hungary, belongs to Bunge Zrt, a large cooking oil and (through a subsidiary) a margarine producing company, which operates in Hungary as part of the global Bunge Limited group. Vénusz sunflower cooking oil has been present in the Hungarian market since 1952 and served generations of housewives. Throughout its long history the company’s main focus has always been on quality and major investments have been made regularly to meet the changing market needs. Edina Beale reports.
QUALITY COOKING OIL FROM HUNGARY T
he predecessor of Bunge Zrt was a state owned Vegetable oil and Detergent Manufacturing Company which was established in 1964 as a joint venture of many small vegetable oil factories in Hungary. At that time the company covered many segments including the manufacturing of vegetable oil based food and margarine, protein forage, soap, detergent and cleaning products, candles and other chemicals, but by the 70–80s the most dynamically developing sector was the vegetable oil manufacturing. In 1991 the company changed to a public limited company, and most of its shares were acquired by Cereol Holding, an oilseed processing company that had significant market positions in western Europe. The name of the company changed to Cereol Növényolajipari Rt Magyarország and it operated as part of the Eridania Béghin-Say Agrarian Group, which owned majority shares of many sugar factories in Hungary. Cereol focused on processing sunflower and rapeseed oil as well as producing and packaging cooking oil. Products included crude vegetable cooking oil, packaged cooking oil, forage sleet and cooking lecithin. After privatisation the company underwent a major technological development with the focus on all areas of the manufacturing process and the packaging. In 1993–94 a modern cooking oil refinery was established and a 1 litre PET base packaging unit was built in Martfű; as a result of this development, the company has become one of the most modern manufacturing firms in terms of capacity and quality in Europe. This created new opportunities for the firm to serve the domestic and export markets to the highest standard. 136 Industry Europe
Global support The American Bunge Limited, one of the biggest oilseed processing companies in the world, acquired Cereol in 2003, and since then the company has been operating in Hungary under the name of Bunge Zrt. Besides Europe, Bunge Limited is also active in the USA, Canada, South America and in Asia. In 2008 Bunge made a significant investment to improve the facilities and increase capacities in the Martfű factory. The current processing capacities are suitable to satisfy the complete domestic market demand for cooking oil. In order to guarantee excellent quality, Bunge introduced the IFS quality assurance system into its operations. The company has always been committed to protecting the environment and complies with the requirements of the ISO 14001: 2004 Environmental System. Bunge acquired the margarine producing Royal Brinkers Hungary Kft in 2010. This subsidiary is now called Natura Margarin Kft and produces private label products as well as low price margarine products in the factory located in Tatabánya, south-west Budapest. The company also offers the well-known Bords Eve margarine in the premium category and in September 2011 extended its portfolio with the Vénusz margarine family range.
Innovative solutions As one of the leading innovators of the Bunge group, Bunge Zrt has always put great emphasis on healthy and environmentally friendly developments. This commitment is also evident in the design of its packaging solutions.
