The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1984 (11. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1984-07-01 / 7. szám

HUNGARIAN BUSINESS PEOPLE

Every day is “Flag Day” at the Sipos International Bakers.

George Sipos

And His International Bakery

PERTH AMBOY - When George Sipos took over the old, dilapidated Robert Hall building at 365 Smith Street here in Perth Amboy in 1978, and began converting it at great cost into a modern bakery, his Hungarian friends and customers thought that he had gone out of his mind and predicted that he was doomed to failure.

“They thought I was crazy,” George recalled, “and were positive that I would lose my shirt and go bankrupt. But, unfortunately, that’s the way some people react when somebody else tries to do something worthwhile with his life, instead of just sitting around talking about it.”

That George Sipos did, indeed, do something worthwhile with his life, cannot be denied. He not only proved the “doomsayers” wrong, but, within a period of only six years, he became the proud owner of a multimillion-dollar bakery, with 16 roundthe-clock employees, a modern plant second-to-none, and “international” customers not only from here, Central Jersey, and the rest of the State of New Jersey, but also from such states as California, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Florida, New York, and others.

“You see, what those people, who ridiculed me at first, didn’t know,” he said, “was that God has been with me all the way and that He still is. Besides, I know my trade and work at it seven days a week, which helps Him to help me!”

A Tragic Hungarian Background

George Sipos was born in Hungary, the youngest among six boys, and was raised on a prosperous farm near Szent Gothart. His father was a wealthy supplier of farm products, wine, and lumber. Young George’s future seemed assured. But, when he became 14 years of age, tragedy struck the Sipos family. They were round up in 1952 and imprisoned.

“Because we were wealthy,” George explained, “we were con-I’age 10

sidered enemies of the regime which came into power after the end of World War II. My father and one of my brothers died in the prison camp in which we were all held.”

After three years of confinement under the worst possible conditions, young George Sipos was released from custody and put to work in a coal mine. However, when the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 broke out, he escaped and became a “freedom fighter”. When the revolution was put down, he tracked down his mother and escaped with her to Austria. From there, the two Hungarian refugees were shipped to England and, in 1958, they were able to emigrate to the United States to settle down in Port Reading, New Jersey.

George Sipos is the kind of boss, who works with his employees round-the-clock to assure quality bakery products.

Free Enterprise System Tailor-Made For George

The American system of free enterprise was tailor-made for George Sipos and he took to it like a “duck to water”. For five years, he held down two jobs. One at night with Security Steel in Avenel, the other in the morning for Stark’s Bakery on Smith Street in Perth Amboy. His mode of transportation between jobs was the bicycle. Then, in 1963, he bought Stark’s Bakery, changed its name to his own, and hasn’t stopped since. As busy as he is, though, he never forgets the country which gave him a chance. For the George Sipos International Bakery is the only one around which hoists and flies the American Flag every day, a flag once flown over Congress.

“I love America,” he said, “and I wish so much that all Americans should appreciate and respect what they’ve got. It is truly the land of the free!”

George Sipos shows Harry G. Ladanye the art of cookie baking by the thousands per day.

E ighth Hungarian Tribe