Optigép Implements HUF Half a Billion Development

Agricultural machinery manufacturer Optigép Ltd., based in Békés, SE Hungary, is implementing a development project worth HUF 500 million, the company's managing director, János Patkás told the state news agency MTI on Thursday.

He said that HUF 261 million were won in an EU tender, and the project will be financed with almost the same amount of own resources.

As part of the development, a new office building of almost 1,000 square meters will be built with a social area, a canteen, training and presentation rooms. Construction is already underway and is expected to be completed by the end of the year. In the future, they would also like to add a spare parts warehouse.

The assembly workshop has been extended with a 274-sqm covered area, which will be used both as a loading area and for running and testing special hydraulically lockable adapters.

As part of the investment, a 50-kilowatt solar panel system was installed, two welding robots and a new IT and marketing system was purchased.

János Patkás said that their main product is the sunflower and maize harvesting adapter, of which 400-500 units are produced annually. With the help of robots and other previous improvements, they want to increase this capacity by 5-10% next year.

Last year, they added laser cutting equipment to their tooling to cut tubes and closed fittings, and also installed a new 260-tonne, four-meter CNC bending machine, he noted.

They export to nearly 20 countries. Recently, export orders have increased a lot and last year, they were able to increase their turnover by more than one billion forints, he said.

While last year, export sales accounted for more than HUF 1 billion of their HUF 3 billion turnover (almost double the previous year's figure), they expect to close the year 2022 with a turnover of HUF 4 billion, of which 60% is expected to come from exports, the managing director said.

The company currently employs 150 people, but plans to hire 5-10 more in the near future.