Pontex is spending hundreds of millions of forints on preparations for the order, which is expected to generate billions of forints in revenues, managing director Zoltán Mészáros told the paper. Preparations include building two new plants, with a combined area of 2,200 square meters, at Pontex’s base in the Tolna industrial park in southwest Hungary. Pontex will hire 10% more workers because of the order and it will also participate in setting up a product development centre for GE.
Pontex recently decided to set up a foreign unit because of unpredictable production costs in Hungary, Mészáros said. The company is considering Romania as a possible location, but a final decision has not been made.
Pontex clients were earlier limited to Hungarian furniture companies, but a contract to supply Germany’s Himolla, the world’s second largest furniture maker, has significantly raised the company’s profile.