Food trade in the Lake Balaton Resort Area

Péter, Erzsébet

Keywords: food trade, concentration, small enterprises, facilities

Because of privatisation, basic changes took place in the Hungarian retail trade sector in the ‘90s. New enterprises were established as a result of the changes in ownership and customers’ habits.
Foreign capital entering Hungary caused significant changes in the economy within a single decade. Because of the significant multiplier effects of foreign capital, new controlling systems, new approaches to work, new services and a new financial background were established.
Among the economic sectors of Lake Balaton’s Resort Areas the development is mostly observable in the retail trade. Retail chains and shopping centres own modern equipment and provide a satisfactory selection, through external capital investments. They were able to build up new networks and distribution systems. At the same time retail trade declined as micro enterprises with few employees lost their position in the area. The Hungarian food-trade sector’s answer to the appearance on the market of trade companies well provided with capital was the establishment of “chains”. This change made it possible for small sized enterprises to be competitive against the big companies in the field of commerce.

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