Rolling in Budapest Cultural information in English … Hear everything first hand

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The annual press conference of Mapei SpA was held in the gorgeous environment @ House of Hungarian Music Budapest

Before the press conference, the representatives of the invited media were invited to the local Dome, where we took part in a Crossover-Classical-Contemporary-Electronic on an audiovisual journey.

After that awesome journey, about 50 people continued to their seat to the press conference hall. First, the CEO of Mapei SpA, Veronica Squinzi, talked about the background of the company which was founded by Rodolfo Squinzi– In the early days, it manufactured colored paints and materials for building coverings. In 1978, Giorgio Squinzi graduated in industrial chemistry, began internationalizing the company, both commercially and in terms of production, and opening their first small factory in Canada after supplying adhesives for installing the rubber surfaces used for the athletics tracks at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Over the following decades the company expanded into Austria, United States, France and then the rest of the world, opening new branches and taking over other important brands, starting with Vinavil in Italy in 1994 and most recently culminating in its latest acquisition of Fili & Form. This growth strategy is connected with the need to manufacture adhesives and chemical products for the building industry within a 400–500 km radius of building operations to keep transport costs sustainable. MAPEI SpA currently operates 90 subsidiaries in 56 countries, operating through 83 manufacturing plants in 36 countries and each with its own quality control laboratory, and 31 research centers (including a corporate center) and in 20 countries employing 11,000 people. It operates a total of 100 representative offices.

After the general introduction, she turned to speak about Mapie’s today by saying the sustainable development is the most important of Mapei’s four pillars, which the company set as a goal in 2010. Q.: “The goal is to use high-quality building materials to create buildings that are as durable and sustainable as possible. This requires the development of many more recycled materials, all with maximum consideration of energy efficiency aspects. The company’s zero cold cladding product line fits into this line, which covers the entire range of cold cladding through adhesives and grouts in a sustainable manner, carbon dioxide emissions without.” Overall Mapei SpA expects the sales increasing of more than 6% this year.

Following Ms Veronica Squinzi’s presentation, Mr. Béla Markovich – managing director of Mapei Ltd., presented the company’s results for 2022 and plans for 2023. According to Béla Markovich, there is still a cochlear phenomenon on the market. In order for clients to avoid pitfalls when issuing construction/renovation works, they must be much more conscious when selecting specialists. He presented a website at https://www.szakemberajanlo.hu where a customer can find professionals who have created beautiful and handy things in the past and who can be trusted. This site may draw the customer’s attention to the honest professionals in need. How to choose a contractor so that you don’t go wrong. According to the executive, one of the company’s most important goals is to find good professionals and entrust them with construction work, therefore ensuring construction dreams to come true and not to become nightmare. Spoke about the situation here in Hungary regarding the wages Q.: “Upon Mapei’s information, the 8636HUF per square meter price already corresponds to European-level wages.” According to Béla Markovich, this slows down emigration, with such wages not worth for the majority of professionals to go working abroad. However, if demand continues to decrease, despite the high wages, without work, there is fear that the emigration of skilled construction workers will increase again. Around 43% of professionals perceive no difficulty in the supply of building materials. Only 53% experience minor difficulties, and 3% perceive significant difficulties. Most of them experience supply problems in the field of wood, insulation and tile products.

Just a picture in the frame … The larger job means the waiting time is longer. This time for minor repairs is 46 days on average, for minor constructions and renovations 56 days, for medium investments 66 days, for large investments 71 days. The general contractors have to wait most this year up to 75 days on average. A mason can work for 70 days, a tiler for 65 days. The minimum commitment period for water and gas fitters is 27 days, for building mechanics 33 days, and for electricians 40 days.

In response to one of the media’s questions Ms Veronica Squinzi said Q.: Despite the war in Ukrain, Mapei is not giving up on the Ukrainian market, where it has been already a distributor for many years. The company’s plans include the establishment of a production factory, but the armed conflict in the country delayed the investment. Mapei intends to participate as an active actor in the reconstruction of the country.“

Last but not least, the representatives of the media were provided with thorough information covering many aspects of the Mapie pillars.

Riport and snaps by Aggie Reiter