30 YEARS
VIDEOTON celebrates its 30th anniversary!
The new VIDEOTON started to operate with 6000 workers in 1992, and achieved a revenue of more than 20 million EUR in its first full business year. After 30 years, the company group with 21 subsidiaries on 11 locations (one in Bulgaria, and another one in Serbia) expects a revenue of approximately 605 million EUR in 2021, and the average number of its employees (including temporary workers) is more than 9000. The regional company is the 4th largest electronic manufacturer based in Europe.
3 decades on the road of progress
VIDEOTON’s success is based on its ability to innovate, and to continuously and flexibly adapt to market conditions and expectations.
The group’s development can be split into 3 periods, the first of which lasted until the end of the 90’s, and it was characterised by classic subcontracting activity. In this decade, labor-intensive projects based on technologies defined by partners have been the main sources of revenue. This phase ended in year 2000, as a result of an outstanding increase in the minimum wage, large-scale projects left VIDEOTON, as well as Hungary-
The second period stretches from the millennium to the end of the decade: we may consider it the beginning of real contract manufacturing.
VIDEOTON's customer base has changed: audio and other consumer products have been increasingly replaced by automotive and household appliance companies based in Europe, and by industrial electronics manufacturers ramping up towards the end of the decade. This period of intense development was characterized by the need to implement full-fledged manufacturing competence, implying own raw materials, technology and engineering activities, and significantly increased the added value.
The start of the third major phase was the 2008-2009 crisis. VIDEOTON has coped with the economic crisis much better than its competitors and has been able to survive and improve further. The current image and company structure of the group evolved at that point of time. From the 2010's co-operation, co-design and optimization from the early stages of product design emerged as a customer expectation, as well as automation came into focus, mainly due to labor shortages, rising wages and high quality expectations.
Following the stagnation caused by the crisis, not regardless of the multi-billion technology expansion and excellent financial stability, the group was on the rise again.
So much so, that ever since then, the company group achieves a record revenue every year. In addition, in an increasingly confusing world, the role of production inside the EU is becoming more important, making VIDEOTON an even more stable point for its partners.
In addition to the automotive industry, which accounts for roughly 40% of the group’s sales, new, innovative markets (such as battery technology, e-car components, smart homes and home networks) are playing an increasingly important role in the portfolio, and partnerships with rapidly growing start-ups and scale-ups also have great potential. Thanks to standing on more legs, the crises unfolded following the pandemic - at the group level - has not meant a fall-back for VIDEOTON so far.
30 conversations with our colleagues
Many of our current colleagues worked at the company group even at the time when the modern VIDEOTON was born, and in fact families that have been tied to the company for generations are very common. In addition, we are open towards young talents too: VIDEOTON has been participating in the dual education program for years, and the proportion of skilled workers, engineers and others with higher education has started to grow dynamically over the past decade.
