Hello country!

For twenty-seven years, the kitchen has been our passion. We are passionate about beautifully crafted kitchen counters, modern appliances, new technologies, and we love to meet challenges that seem impossible. Over the years, we have always strived for complexity, so an assignment no longer stops in kitchen design and construction, but in interior design, complete with our service and maintenance service. We have opened up to new markets, so the Coninvest group of companies now plays a key role in the retail business.

Ask Tibor Papp, company manager, how you currently see the company’s situation, future plans and directions.

How do you assess the situation of Coninvest?

Thanks, we’re fine. Last year, we achieved outstanding success for all our business lines and completed the restructuring of the Coninvest Group, which will be the cornerstone of the development in the coming years.

The beginning of 2020 has been a very strong start for us, in addition to the various difficult tasks, new challenges and the workload of organized work in the daily lives of business leaders over the past three months.

At the moment, I can say that we are working with almost full steam, or we have been working with the right capacity even during the restrictions. Of course, we kept the health safety of our employees in mind throughout.

Our main goal was not to leave any of our partners and employees alone. We have communicated a lot through the possible channels, or together with all our clients we have developed those crisis-induced project agreements, financial constructions, a common community for everyone, and perhaps I can already say that they have successfully survived the last period.

It is astonishing that in this crisis situation – when most are panicking down the blinds – Coninvest is almost soaring, following new orders, several of which are apparently more rural projects. What could be the reason for this?

As Kecskemét, I have never distinguished between a mission in Budapest and a geographically distant, so to speak, rural assignment, all of which we perform to the best of our knowledge. We work and build on a very conscious business plan and strategy every day. The number of works and projects in Budapest and Pest counties has only decreased over time, but today almost 40% of our turnover comes from rural areas, which are tasks. Our Coninvest cars turn around more and more in the Balaton Uplands and are not even mentioned in the Tarányi press house, for example, but the kitchen is designed and delivered by us and is complemented by a little interior design. I can also mention the Silverine Lake Resort Hotel in Balatonfüred, or our new project, about which we cannot tell in detail yet, just that it is also connected to Lake Balaton. We take part in the development of the rural units of the large hotel chains – Danubius Hotels, Hunguest Hotels – among them my heart highlights the interior design renovations of the Hotel Marina in Balatonfüred.

Strengthening our presence, we have been building our Balaton service since this year.

Looking east of the Danube, the complete kitchen transformation of the Bori Mami Restaurant in Gyöngyös has just been completed, which will also be one of our key references. I recommend everyone to visit here! Our projects are similarly beautiful, but already in the factory area, the new restaurant and canteen designs of the Gyöngyös plants of GIANT and B.Braun Hungary. A restaurant near Lake Tisza, Sarudi and a restaurant in Kiskőrös are currently under construction. I promise we’ll read about both in this year’s magazines! Hello country!

Do you even focus on other cities? Which settlements are still in focus?

Born in Kecskemét, let me start with that, as building the central kitchen and dining room at the Mercedes factory there was a previous defining job for the company, which I am proud to tell you at home.

In Veszprém, we only worked on the first three projects, including the installation of a complete kitchen or dishwashing technology at Siemens’ factories, but I hope to report on the work in Miskolc and Debrecen soon.

How much trouble is the logistics? By this I mean greater distances. How do you manage this practice?

We have no particular problems with logistics tasks, to cover the whole country with our own or subcontracted resources. What is especially challenging today is the organization and execution of on-site installations and project implementations. My colleague Dénes Kovács is responsible for the whole area and ensures the “Coninvest” construction standard that our customers – or ourselves – expect from us.

How much other type of attention does a rural project require from you? What are customer relationships like? Are there any differences and similarities compared to a Pest order? I am always happy to go to rural negotiations, I can easily identify with the environment and establish a good relationship anywhere in rural Hungary. Perhaps what is a little different is that during a meeting we spend more time with our partner to get to know each other and the history and business goals of the current investment. After that, the business part can be discussed in a few minutes…

On the part of Coninvest, we reciprocate the trust by providing an opportunity to present the project through their communication channels, and to get in touch with professional organizations.

In general, I can say that Coninvest’s customer relationships are special in that they do not end with the handover process, but rather that a long-term business / friendly cooperation and joint communication begins there.

What are the plans for 2020? And looking to the future?

In our 2020 company presentation, a picture appeared, a new office building, warehouse, training and showroom concept with the inscription Coninvest on the facade. This is now the biggest challenge for us in the next period.

Do you have a favorite quote?

“Our mission is to create a Plan B that serves the interests of people, our planet and profit at the same time. Plan A, in which companies are driven solely by the interest of making a profit, is now unacceptable. ”

Richard Branson: The Virgin Method