Economy
Austrian chief says Spar plans no pull-out from Hungary
“Business is booming for us in Hungary therefore we will not exit the country only because of the incomprehensible laws that infringe EU regulations," said Drexel.
He has criticised the European Commission for its failure to object to the supervision fee payable by food retailers, despite the fact that the relevant Hungarian legislation are within the jurisdiction of three commissioners at once. The CEO said it is market-distortive that while Hungarian companies pay a 0.1% fee, foreign companies are obliged to pay up to 6%, depending on their turnover.
He thinks that while the EU executive pays little attention to the rule of law, democracy and discrimination it keeps “harassing" consumers and corporates with never-ending bureaucratic rules such as the mandatory display of food-related information or seeds regulations.
Drexel noted that SPAR has an 11% market share in Hungary, operating 420 stores and that its revenues exceeded EUR 1.5 billion in 2014. He added that last year political decisions in Hungary caused much more problems for SPAR than they had anticipated, yet the company managed to close a successful year, overshooting both revenue and profit growth targets.
Hungary's competition watchdog (GVH) announced on Thursday that it fined SPAR HUF 43 million for misleading advertising.
GVH argued that SPAR had failed to sufficiently inform customers of the conditions of a campaign that promised "HUF 500 back for every HUF 5,000 spent".
Disagreeing with the resolution SPAR initiated a court review of GVH's decision, it announced late yesterday.
He has criticised the European Commission for its failure to object to the supervision fee payable by food retailers, despite the fact that the relevant Hungarian legislation are within the jurisdiction of three commissioners at once. The CEO said it is market-distortive that while Hungarian companies pay a 0.1% fee, foreign companies are obliged to pay up to 6%, depending on their turnover.
He thinks that while the EU executive pays little attention to the rule of law, democracy and discrimination it keeps “harassing" consumers and corporates with never-ending bureaucratic rules such as the mandatory display of food-related information or seeds regulations.
Drexel noted that SPAR has an 11% market share in Hungary, operating 420 stores and that its revenues exceeded EUR 1.5 billion in 2014. He added that last year political decisions in Hungary caused much more problems for SPAR than they had anticipated, yet the company managed to close a successful year, overshooting both revenue and profit growth targets.
Hungary's competition watchdog (GVH) announced on Thursday that it fined SPAR HUF 43 million for misleading advertising.
GVH argued that SPAR had failed to sufficiently inform customers of the conditions of a campaign that promised "HUF 500 back for every HUF 5,000 spent".
Disagreeing with the resolution SPAR initiated a court review of GVH's decision, it announced late yesterday.
