Bacon King Tamási-Hús

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Tamási-Hús Kft in Hungary is a highly specialised company focusing on raw bacon, cooked belly and crispy bacon. Its wide assortment of products is distributed under the Gierlinger’s Premium Bacon brand across Europe. Due to its consistently high quality standards, Tamási-Hús has been leading the domestic market for many years and has become the Austrian Gierlinger Group’s top producer. Edina Beale reports.

Tamási-Hús kft was established in Tamási, Hungary in 2005. The Austrian bacon specialist Gierlinger Holding Gmbh invested 1.5 billion forint to set up its second foreign subsidiary, which began production in 2007. It took a few years for the factory to build up sales but by 2010 it was ready to enlarge its capacity and increase production. In 2012 further investment was needed to improve facilities and TamásiHús has updated its technology to meet customer requirements and to achieve the expected growth. Thanks to these investments the factory has greatly increased its domestic sales in 2013, and as a result of this achieved a 7.6 billion turnover, which represented 20 per cent growth compared to the previous year.

Since then the company has seen steady development; its production site and office premises in Tamási have been extended and modernised to meet the need for increased production and growing staff level. At present Tamási-Hús employs around 250 people and has a 15.9 billion forint annual turnover.

Premium products

Owing to its outstanding product quality, Tamási-Hús has been a market leader in the bacon segment in Hungary for many years. Its management is committed to providing maximum quality starting from the raw materials and ingredients through to processing and packaging. The factory uses the best raw materials from foreign suppliers. In addition to German, Austrian and Polish meat the factory sources 10 per cent of its produce from the domestic market.

The company puts a great deal of emphasis on maintaining its premium quality standards. Gierlinger Holding believes that in addition to outstanding taste the most convenient portion sizes and practical packaging are just as important when it comes to quality. The factory specialises in sliced and cubed bacon production, including smoked, smokedboiled and roasted varieties. Its speciality is the crispy bacon – produced by contact roasting technology that is mostly seen in burgers in fast food restaurants. Apart from its regular technological upgrades, Tamási-Hús is IFS and BRC certified and consistently applies the HACCP concept.

Strong support

No doubt the clear direction and strong financial support provided by the parent company has greatly contributed to the success of TamásiHús. Headquartered in Ottensheim, Austria, Gierlinger Holding GmbH was founded in 2000 as a meat merchant wholesaler. The company sells its bacon and meat products through distributors in Europe and operates four production sites. Today Tamási-Hús Kft in Hungary is the top producer of the company’s crispy bacon products.

The group established its first subsidiary in 2004 in Romania to produce Viennese products from chicken, turkey, pork and veal and various meat skewers. This was followed by the new venture in Hun-

gary where production started in 2007. In recent years the group has opened two more sites. In 2016 a new production facility in Andorf, Austria was set up to manufacture Austria’s traditional pork Schnitzel. The factory uses Austrian pork loin, which is then breaded with flour, whole egg and breadcrumbs to taste like homemade Schnitzel. In May 2016 the Gierlinger group began operating on a 44,000m2 site in Serbia with a production area of 14,000m2. After one and half years of reconstruction and modernisation the Serbian subsidiary was implemented with the specialist technology to offer a wide product range including bacon, ham, sausages, spare ribs and spreads.

Good prospects

Currently Tamási-Hús Kft exports 60 per cent of its production to the Scandinavian countries, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Austria. Products are distributed to popular fast food chains such as Burger King, KFC and renowned supermarket chains including the Rewe group, Auchan, Metro, Spar and Lidl. Its emphasis on modern technology and the financial support of the parent company will enable Tamási-Hús Kft to maintain its high quality standard and extend its product range.

Mr. Johann Gierlinger, owner of the Gierlinger Holding GmbH, sums up the company’s aims and objectives for the coming years: “We are continuously investing into new technologies in order to modernise our production and increase our capacities. At present we are extending our production hall and office facilities as well as building social facilities for our staff at our operation in Tamási, Hungary. We aim to achieve growth in our existing markets and intend to launch new products in the near future.” n