Ford opens new service center in Budapest

U.S. carmaker Ford opened a regional service center in Budapest in September. The new Budapest SSC is Fordʼs biggest European administrative center, said Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó. In addition to several pricing and production planning functions serving all European markets, the center will provide HR services to Ford units in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Szijjártó said. By the end of next year, Ford will have 700 employees in Hungary, mainly highly-qualified young professionals speaking foreign languages, the minister added.

Szijjártó was cited by government website kormany.hu as saying that the palette of Hungary’s automotive industry will now be complete thanks to the fact that, in addition to production and R&D, a large automotive brand has also brought its administrative and financial service center to Hungary.

The automotive industry is setting the pace in global competition, said the minister, adding that this is good news for Hungary as the automotive industry represents the backbone of the Hungarian economy, and adding that the production value of the Hungarian automotive industry increased by 8% year-on-year, following last year’s record figure.

Ford Regional Director Viktor Molnár said the company now operates at three bases in Hungary. Over the past five years, Ford has brought more and more European and global functions to Hungary, namely the companyʼs European financial, pricing, production planning, product management, marketing and controlling tasks, and several global functions, he added.

The headcount at Fordʼs Hungarian units has tripled over the past five years and is expected to grow to almost 600 by the end of this year, Molnár noted.