Equity
Projects axed, 6,000+ new jobs never created due to Sunday trading ban in Hungary - Népszabadság
The few market leading retailers in Hungary alone could have created over 4,000 new jobs in recent years, had the government not suppressed their investment appetite with measures such as the "plaza stop" law (ban on construction of new retail precincts above a certain size), new industry-specific taxes for the retail sector, the nationalisation of the tobacco trade, or the Sunday shopping ban, Népszabadság claimed on Monday in its coverage of a retail sector convention sponsored by business weekly Világgazdaság.
In his capacity as conference moderator, Ákos Kozák, Managing Director of market research company GfK Hungária, asked retail CEOs how much they would have invested in Hungary since 2010, and how many new jobs they would have created, had the government measures never been put in place, Népszabadság reported.
Tesco Hungary Managing Director Zsolt Pálinkás replied by confirming that investments at his company had indeed been put on the back burner as a result of government measures. Whilst admitting that the years after 2010 would have seen a slowdown in investment in Hungary anyway due to the economic recession, he estimated that Tesco would have invested HUF 80 billion to HUF 90 billion in the country and would have created about 2,000 jobs, had those policy measures not been put in place.
Gabriella Heiszler, Managing Director at Spar Hungary, said her company's ditched investment projects were on a scale of tens of billions of forints, without specifying the exact amount.
"In this kind of regulatory environment, it is not easy to sell shareholders on investments," Heiszler was quoted by the newspaper as saying. In her estimate, investments in Hungary fell to a quarter of the earlier level.
"In the earlier years, we were able to add 500 to 1,000 staff each year," she said, adding that under the current circumstances the employee headcount has been stagnant for several years now.
President of the Hungarian Shopping Mall Association (MBSZ) Gyula Gyalay Korpos said the years prior to the "plaza stop" law saw the opening of two new shopping centres on average. Projects like that are typically worth around EUR 150 million to EUR 180 million, create 1,000 permanent jobs, and temporary employment for an additional 1,500 to 2,000 construction workers, he added.
However, his former company (until recently, Gyalay Korpos served as Managing Director of ECE Project Management) had to halt a shopping mall project already under construction due to the "plaza stop" law, while competitors ditched plans for an additional two at the project planning stage, Népszabadság's website Nol.hu reported. According to Gyalay Korpos, the current statistics do not clearly show the decline in employment in the retail sector; the actual figures will not be known until early 2016, he claimed.
Although the June figures released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) showed ony 2,400 jobs lost in the sector, György Vámos, Secretary-General of the National Retail Association in Hungary argued that a closer look at employment statistics reveal that as many as 5,000 retail jobs were axed in the past few months.On the other hand, the Hungarian-owned grocery store chains that the government was seeking to protect did not really profit from the financial burden imposed on multinational retailers, Nol.hu concluded, referring to a survey by GfK which has found that Hungarian-owned chains lose as much as 6.8% market share to the leading retailers since the adoption of the Sunday shopping ban.
In his capacity as conference moderator, Ákos Kozák, Managing Director of market research company GfK Hungária, asked retail CEOs how much they would have invested in Hungary since 2010, and how many new jobs they would have created, had the government measures never been put in place, Népszabadság reported.
Tesco Hungary Managing Director Zsolt Pálinkás replied by confirming that investments at his company had indeed been put on the back burner as a result of government measures. Whilst admitting that the years after 2010 would have seen a slowdown in investment in Hungary anyway due to the economic recession, he estimated that Tesco would have invested HUF 80 billion to HUF 90 billion in the country and would have created about 2,000 jobs, had those policy measures not been put in place.
Gabriella Heiszler, Managing Director at Spar Hungary, said her company's ditched investment projects were on a scale of tens of billions of forints, without specifying the exact amount.
"In this kind of regulatory environment, it is not easy to sell shareholders on investments," Heiszler was quoted by the newspaper as saying. In her estimate, investments in Hungary fell to a quarter of the earlier level.
"In the earlier years, we were able to add 500 to 1,000 staff each year," she said, adding that under the current circumstances the employee headcount has been stagnant for several years now.
President of the Hungarian Shopping Mall Association (MBSZ) Gyula Gyalay Korpos said the years prior to the "plaza stop" law saw the opening of two new shopping centres on average. Projects like that are typically worth around EUR 150 million to EUR 180 million, create 1,000 permanent jobs, and temporary employment for an additional 1,500 to 2,000 construction workers, he added.
However, his former company (until recently, Gyalay Korpos served as Managing Director of ECE Project Management) had to halt a shopping mall project already under construction due to the "plaza stop" law, while competitors ditched plans for an additional two at the project planning stage, Népszabadság's website Nol.hu reported. According to Gyalay Korpos, the current statistics do not clearly show the decline in employment in the retail sector; the actual figures will not be known until early 2016, he claimed.
Although the June figures released by the Central Statistics Office (KSH) showed ony 2,400 jobs lost in the sector, György Vámos, Secretary-General of the National Retail Association in Hungary argued that a closer look at employment statistics reveal that as many as 5,000 retail jobs were axed in the past few months.On the other hand, the Hungarian-owned grocery store chains that the government was seeking to protect did not really profit from the financial burden imposed on multinational retailers, Nol.hu concluded, referring to a survey by GfK which has found that Hungarian-owned chains lose as much as 6.8% market share to the leading retailers since the adoption of the Sunday shopping ban.
