The chronicle of Eger Tobacco Factory
The cigarette factory
In 1928 he entered the service of the tobacco factory in a temporary capacity as assistant caretaker, and from October 1st 1929 he was made a clerk of the factory. His superiors were highly staisfied with his work right from the first and his work and character were appraised in the following manner: “He is highly trustworthy, honest, industrious and useful in many capacities”; “He is very industrious, trustworthy and keen, of great use both in the accounts department and elsewhere”. On 31st December 1945 he was appointed assistant director, and in this capacity, working alongside Syposs the director, he played an important part in the rebuilding and revitalising of the factory after the wounds inflicted on it during the war. The year of his appointment to the director’s seat was the year of the first constitutional change in the Hungarian tobacco industry. Since 1895 the Eger factory had operated under the auspices of the Finance Ministry Tobacco Excise Directorate, using fiscal accounting and with a centrally directed management. From 1949 onwards it became an independent state company, using its own double-entry book-keeping system, and as such came under the wing of the Ministry of Food Tobacco Industry Directorate. With its “Kossuth”, “Terv” and “Munkás” cigarettes, the Eger factory carved out an ever-greater niche for itself in the Hungarian market. Its annual output of 470 million cigarettes represented 6.4% of the total number of cigarettes appearing on the market. In the 1950s a wide-ranging mechanisation programme began, the first taste of which was felt with the closure of the Óbuda factory - machines from there, which were certainly modern by Eger standards, were transported to the Eger plant. In 1950 the factory received three Rapid DC-type “Our nursery school”
