Budai noted that the company had broken even in 2013, the year after it took over the assets of troubled meat processor Gyulai Húskombinát, and it booked earnings of HUF 140 mln in 2014.
The numbers are proof that a local council can operate a plant well, and that Hungaryʼs meat industry has a future, he said.
The local council was awarded a HUF 1.8 bln state job creation and preservation grant in 2012. It used the money to buy the assets of Gyulai Húskombinát.
Gyulahús employs 310 people at present.
Mayor Ernő Görgényi said the city is drafting plans to build a new plant and slaughterhouse with annual capacity to process one million hogs. The investment could create as many as 500 jobs, but depends on the success of the governmentʼs strategy to double the number of hogs in Hungary from three million at present.
Gyulahús managing director Zsolt Daka said the company was able to counter the effects of the Russian embargo on European Union farm products with sales in Slovakia, Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, and it managed to boost domestic sales over 10%.
Earlier, Russian sales accounted for one-fifth of Gyulahúsʼs exports.
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