“This is not decided by me, but by the owner, but as far as I speak with him, no” – this is what Gabriella Heiszler, president and managing director of SPAR, answered to Világgazdaság’s question about whether her company plans to withdraw from the country. After that, we asked the company manager that the relationship between the Austrian company and the government has soured in the recent period, after SPAR leader Hans Reisch accused the Hungarian government of quasi-nationalization in an interview in mid-March, and also complained to the European Commission about the special retail tax. It was also an unusual move on the part of the company to attach the domestic subsidiary directly to the Austrian parent company. The government’s response did not fail either: although the accusations were rejected, Minister of National Economy Márton Nagy said that with such a loss, it is not at all rational for SPAR to remain in Hungary in the long term. Because of the accusations, the government is also preparing to sue the company.
Gabriella Heiszler revealed that SPAR was also unprofitable last year, to the same extent as the year before, but she did not wish to provide details about the exact amount. On the other hand, he said that the turnover of the entire market decreased by 8 percent last year, and the decline in SPAR’s turnover was about half of that.
– answered the question as to whether he was the one whom Márton Nagy had appointed.
He admitted that it was a tense conversation, which was successfully concluded.
With regard to the special retail tax, they are confident that they will get their right, but it will be a multi-year procedure before it can be concluded. The government is preparing a lawsuit against the company, but they have not yet received any official notification.
According to Gabriella Heiszler, SPAR would be clearly profitable if it did not have to pay the special tax, which amounts to HUF 30 billion, into the state coffers.
Last year’s sales of the company exceeded one thousand billion forints
Gabriella Heiszler also talked about how the tax environment and the special tax force them to think about what they spend on. He said that there is increased turbulence behind them, but their task is to radiate stability. He presented the results of last year: for the first time, the company’s sales reached four figures, which amounted to HUF 1,023 billion, which is an increase of more than 15 percent compared to the previous year.
SPAR stores in Hungary cover a total of approximately 470,000 square meters. Heiszler admitted that the annual growth is very low, the reason for this being that the opening of new stores is difficult due to the shopping center stop, but he also indicated that less than the previous year, only 22 billion, was spent on investments, which is why last year was not a successful year in this area .
