The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory
On the great ship
The change of the ratio of hard and soft packaging 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Our joint life with Philip Morris actually started on 2 January. The work continued according to the old order, but only our hands moved in the usual ways over the materials, tools and documents. Our minds were elsewhere, on the future, which had now caught up with us. That is to say, the future was now, and although it was invisible it was tangible in the silence. Probably the worst experience was our inability to plan for the future. There was a total lack of information, the usual communication channels having become tangled. Dr. László Domán, director, Jenő Molnár, deputy financial director, József Várhelyi, deputy director, left the company, respectively retired. The people who stepped into their shoes didn't speak English either, while the company's managing director G.H. Courtier was English, and the financial director Ian Bryson a Scot. The sales and marketing director Mats Ulriksson was Swedish, the factory director Francisco Lopez was Portuguese, and although fluent in several tongues unfortunately Hungarian wasn't among them. We didn't have a personnel director, and the two Hungarian directors, Gábor Garamszegi and Dr. Géza Szalóczi, filled more minor positions, that is the former was director of Corporate Affairs and the latter the Legal Manager. Moreover, only the director of the factory and the Legal Manager stayed on a permanent basis in the Eger factory, while the management of other activities was conducted from the Budapest centre. With the purchase of the Eger factory Philip Morris, for the first time in its existence, entered for it an unknown country burdened with the culture, the attitude and the approach of socialism. The company arrived to work among people who were uncertain and confused, people who had hardly got over the shock of the change of regime. packaging Reject rate 1993 1994 1995 RF 96 YTD 96 01.-03. n—i i 111 r. r,: I n—tt
