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The MPF Group
In the consolidation we
considered all companies that were founded or majority owned directly or
indirectly by MPF Holding LLC. The structure of the group,
the shares of MPF Holding LLC, main activities of the subsidiaries:
General overwiev of the main activities:
The concentration ont he DIY
market went on in 2008 but at the largest clients of the Group this did not
caused any change. Succesfully the Group
could grow its turnover at the international chains traditionally trading with
food, but selling non-food also. In the non-food section we could strenghten
our positions. The Group went on with its
portfolio adjustment. The weight of the economic priced Rhino portfolio was
getting even higher. To keep the turnover of the branded items, we had to be
even more active int he promotions. This caused a slight margin decrease. The
well managed brands are the margin drivers. The MP Metal, MP Rhino, MP Widenta, MPF
Holding and Borovi Design registered
trade marks are representig considerable value of the company. The Group’s central trading
and logistic subsidiary company in Hungary is the MPF Holding Logisztikai és
Kereskedelmi Zrt. Its domicile situated at a logistically excellent place,
beside the motorway M6, 15 km far from the M0 ring motorway (ring around
Budapest). The operation takes place in an office and warehouse building built
on a 30 000 m2 land. The MPF Group acquired in
2008 Clarflex Kft. Clarflex factory has
considerable production capacity int he field of flexible abrasive
products. In this market the price difference between the far-east production
and the hungarian production is not relevant, so we expect a high volume of
production here in the future. Ont he Clarflex factorx site a new electrostatic
strewing machine will be installed also in the future. The Gruop went on with its
strategy on the field of production also. Our market position strenghtened in
producing cutt-off wheels and on the field of abrasive tools. The quality
products are marketed under the brand name Widenta. The Romhány (North Hungary) situated factory is the centre of the
production for the Group in CEE. We moved here also the wrought iron works of
MP Metal Kft. MP Metal taditionally manufactures metal constructions and
wrought iron profiles. The efficency of the metal production is now higher due
to the applied controlling and work
organisation methods in Widenta factory. The Group will go onthis way int he
future also, so the Romhány site will be the industry and production central,
using all existing assets, methods and qualified labourforce. This basis allows
the Group to execute further acquisitions in the field of production to
strenghten our industrial position. It is important to mention
that at the end of 2008 the economic crisis did not affected the Group, so our
orders were not changed. Also important issue, that
the Group re-started the production of furnitures in Baja, and our iron fence
program also become a stabil item in the international chains. The Rhino
program enlarged, and our intention is to be the member of the garden item
market also with this brand. The centre of the Far East
production and quality control is the Meta-Widenta Abrasives China Ltd. Its
role within the Group is decisive, this company is the biggest supplier of MPF
Holding Zrt. In 2007 MPF Holding LLC got 100% share in this company (previously
in this company had also share a chinese investor also). The capability of the
Ráckeresztúr site in every sense appropriate to meet the needs of a modern
logistic centre. The size of the land allows us to execute more logistic
investments. In 2008 the Group start to manage a new business unit, the logistics. The global credit crunch did
not affected the market of abrasives directly
in 2008. But there are indirect
affects, the retailers prognostised a weaker year in 2009, so we plan with this
effect in our future plans. There was an outstanding
turnover increase in the CEE markets thanks specially for Roumania. Based on
this we put even more energy to be on the Bulgarian market. Regarding payment terms, the
trend still goes on, our clients expect longer payment term and more precise
supply output (higher order fulfillment ratio). The cost of financing of
stocks and clients is a key question in this area, where the cost of source of finance started to be
very expensive regarding previous years. The most important clients of MPF
Group are international companies (OBI, Praktiker, Metro, etc), so our claims
are safe. We do not count any considerable loss in this field in 2008. The consolidated numbers of
the Groups shows balanced improvement. The increasing turnover in total It was strategical decision
to reduce the financial obligations toward suppliers. The purchasing experience
of the last years showed that in case of the Far East suppliers the acheivable discounts
for cash or short term payment are far higher, than the interests of the
sources.
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