One of Europe´s major plastics converters, Hungary´s Pannonplast Industries Plc (HQ: H-1780 Budapest; www.pannonplast.hu) often stands somewhat outside the spotlight of western European media. Yet its subsidiaries and joint ventures include a number of well-known names in semi-finished and finished plastic products for construction and infrastructure, packaging and electronics. Listed on the Budapest stock exchange, Pannonplast´s shares are also traded on other international exchanges.

One thing that sets this company apart from its Western plastics industry counterparts is the number of women in leadership positions. Headed by Erzsebet Feher as chairperson and CEO, three out of seven senior management positions are held by women. The president of the supervisory board is also a woman.

Organised as a strategic holding with four clusters (consumer packaging, strategic alliances, injection moulding technology and special technologies), Pannonplast´s nearly 2,500 employees work for 20 member companies in 18 production facilities, one service company and one R&D organisation. The holding´s annual sales totalled HUF 32 bn (EUR 130m) in 2001, its operating profit HUF 2 bn (EUR 8.2m).

Pannonplast has come a long way since its founding in 1922 as Hungarian Button and Plastics Joint-Stock Company, a manufacturer of thermoset and rubber products. Ten years later it already exported to 24 countries. In the 1950s, after its post-World War II nationalisation, the company began to work with thermoplastics, for the most part PVC. From the 1960s to the 1980s, it established new plants throughout Hungary and began the first joint ventures with companies outside its home market. Today, nearly 80% of Pannonplast´s shares are in the hands of foreign institutional investors.

Strategic alliances
Pannonplast has partnerships with some of the biggest names in the western European plastics sector. In 1984, it established the first-ever Japanese-Hungarian jv, Polifoam, now a 51:47 joint venture with Germany´s HT Troplast (and 1.8% individual shareholders). This was followed in 1990 by Pannonpipe, a partnership with Belgium´s Solvay and Austria´s Wienerberger. A Pannonpipe subsidiary, Pipelife Romania, was set up in the 1990s. To produce consumer packaging, Pannonplast established Unical in Romania in 1997 and Interagropack Ltd, with the Ukrainian company of the same name.

At the end of 1999 the Pannonplast cooperation with Solvay was expanded to include Pannon Aldra, a producer of flexible PVC films for industrial applications. Hit hard by the contracting market and the crisis in the German building industry, this company recently announced plans to cease production to concentrate on trading.

The Hungarian group´s latest acquisition, Moldin 2000, manufactures injection moulded plastic and press-formed metal parts for electronics supplier Phillips. Other names grouped under the Pannonplast holding umbrella include injection moulded products subsidiary Dexter, blow-moulded hollow packaging materials producer Almand and plastic banking card manufacturer Multicard.

In the first half of 2002, Pannonplast reported a nearly 70% decline in pretax profit to HUF 397m as sales fell by 8% to HUF 14.4 bn. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by half to HUF 2 bn. The company said the poor results were due to the unfavourable economic background and declining demand from some major customers.