Take your pick PICK Szeged

TAKE YOUR

PICK

The Hungarian meat processing company PICK Szeged Zrt stands head and shoulders above its domestic rivals and even among competitors in Central Europe. Its long traditions, innovative thinking and commitment to providing premium quality products guarantee strong prospects for future expansion. Edina Beale reports.

AS part of the Bonafarm Group, PICK Szeged Zrt is the largest Hungarian meat processing company, operating production units in four locations and a sales centre in Budapest while providing stable employment for nearly 2800 people.

The company cuts and processes more than 580,000 pigs in one year which secures production of 41,800 tonnes of processed products and 33,385 tonnes of fresh meat sales. Its best known PICK brand is available worldwide, and while its biggest European market is Germany, it is present from the USA to Japan. In Hungary the company holds a leading market share with around 23.3 per cent of the market.

Aiming for the finest

Throughout its 147-year history PICK Szeged Zrt has always been committed to high quality standards. Being part of the Bonafarm Group, PICK has the advantage of being able to ensure the highest care is taken to maintain the best quality at all stages from the field to the consumer table. The company’s integrated quality system complies with the highest standards to produce safe, nutritious and unique products that are loved by consumers. Its extensive premium product selection includes salamis and dry sausages, cold cuts, liver pates and frankfurters made of pork. Its flagship product is the world famous PICK Original Wintersalami. Wintersalamis made under the PICK and HERZ brands have gained the Hungarikum title, which is given only to selected products seen as best representing Hungary’s tradition of high quality local production to the outside world. PICK is also the largest Mangalica meat producer in the world and is famous for manufacturing products from the unique Mangalica pork with unrivalled taste.

PICK Szeged Zrt puts a great deal of emphasis on meeting customer demands and changes in taste through continuous innovation. Among many of its exciting new developments is its PICKSTICK Snack sausage, which achieved the most success when the product was launched with an international packaging design in the domestic and foreign markets

in September 2015. PICKSTICK products were developed in mild and spicy flavours and their modern premium packaging provides an attractive and practical solution for customers to consume tasty, high protein meat products as a snack. So far the product is already performing better than had been expected.

Brand building focus

Recently, PICK has strengthened its positions on both the domestic and export markets, increasing its sales and market shares to perform better than ever. This is mostly due to vigorous brand building. The company set its marketing strategy based on the results of extensive customer research which focused on its three main brands: the original PICK brand which offers a broad portfolio to meet the need of parents preparing family meals; the revamped HERZ brand targeting young adults who want high quality products with a unique flavour and image; and the FAMÍLIA brand that provides top quality for price sensitive consumers. Together these three main brands cover customer demands better than any other company in Hungary. The company is currently building its strongest and most traditional PICK brand on the international market.

Another key to PICK’s successful operation is its continuous effort to improve efficiency. The company is constantly on the lookout for efficiency improvements and results gained are invested back into the business to improve production and technologies that will lead to better quality, safety and performance in the long run. Preparing for export growth

Pick expects the Hungarian market to remain stagnant in the next couple of years and therefore plans to continue to strengthen its position through brand building, intensive trading activities and the developments of new products. At the same time, the company aims to grow in its export markets; in addition to entering new fields in developing markets it aims to strengthen its position in Germany, where a subsidiary is already in place.

A major step for PICK in the near future will be the start of the production of the brand new state-of-the-art slaughtering plant in the Hungarian town of Mohacs. As a result of a strategic partnership agreement, the new plant will provide slaughtering, cutting and deboning for PICK at higher efficiency and quality than any other company in Hungary. In the longer term PICK intends to further strengthen its market position by construction of a new production plant in Szeged by the end of 2019, where it will implement the most modern and efficient food processing technologies meeting the highest food safety and hygiene requirements at significantly increased production capacity.

Today PICK Szeged Zrt has a very successful product assortment which has conquered various global markets in the past 147 years, however there are still many areas that are waiting to be exploited by the Hungarian firm. Consumer habits are constantly changing, but if the business sticks with its company values and stays focused on constant innovation while maintaining the highest quality standards, there is no doubt it will continue to reap the rewards. n