Hungarian-owned B+N Referencia Zrt. is the leading facility management (FM) company of Central and Eastern Europe. As Ferenc Kis-Szölgyémi, CEO of the company says: “It is truly unparalleled that, in the past one and a half years, we have become the most dynamically growing Hungarian company in the region.”
The leading FM company in the region
B+N Referencia Zrt., which was established nearly 30 years ago, has been holding a steady position in the list of the TOP 500 Hungarian companies for years. As the ninth largest employer in Hungary, it has 8,500 employees. The firm’s several hundred customers in Hungary include large companies and the prominent participants of the business sector as well as governmental organisations. Its activities cover the entire spectrum of facility management.
As a market leader in Hungary, it was a logical step to go international. Today, B+N Referencia Zrt. is present in 7 key countries in the region, employing 21,000 people and covering an area of 16.5 million square metres. The company entered the Central and Eastern European market in spring 2021 by taking over the subsidiaries of the ISS Group in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary. In autumn, the acquisition of another ISS subsidiary opened the doors to the Slovenian market.
The firm stepped up another level in January 2022: it took over one of the largest players of the Polish FM sector, the INWEMER System Group. This step undoubtedly made B+N the leading facility management company of the region. The activities of INWEMER cover the entire territory of the country and customers can enjoy high quality standardised services in each Polish city. Its portfolio includes a number of Polish and multinational companies as well as governmental organisations and private businesses. It is engaged mainly in cleaning and facility management services.
This was followed by the takeover of the Bulgarian company i-Facility EOOD in September 2022, using only B+N’s own capital resources. B+N Referencia Zrt. has 100% ownership in all its subsidiaries.
Ferenc Kis-Szölgyémi: “The acquisitions completed in 2021 and 2022 have clearly proven that the expertise of our staff is relevant in other countries as well”
“The acquisitions completed in 2021 and 2022 have clearly proven that the expertise of our staff is relevant in other countries as well. The experience and expertise of the companies taken over are being integrated into our company. We learn from each other, share our knowledge in our daily work as well as in our common customer acquisition strategy. We can take advantages of our size and service portfolio in all the seven countries. Our synergies and cost-efficiency mean a huge competitive advantage for us” – said Ferenc Kis-Szölgyémi, CEO of the company.
Our expansion in the region made it possible for the company to enter the top companies of Europe: it became the 13th largest FM company in the continent in 2021 and this year, based on the 2021 results, it will be in the TOP 10 in all likelihood.
The international expansion of B+N Referencia Zrt. was financed from the Bond Funding for Growth Scheme provided by the National Bank of Hungary. The central bank started this programme on 1st July 2019 with the aim of expanding the financing opportunities of Hungarian companies. B+N was granted a total of HUF 23.2 billion in two years.
2021 results
B+N’s consolidated group revenue was HUF 152 billion in 2021, with a positive balance of HUF 19.875 billion in the profit and loss account.
Compared to 2020, this means a significant rise in income, which is primarily due to the activities of our Fit-Out business. The division is engaged in the high quality and professional renovation of properties, including state-managed and publicly-financed hospitals within the ‘Healthy Budapest’ programme in 2021-2022. The staff of B+N spent 2 million working hours carrying out energy and aesthetic modernisation in a total area of 300,000 square metres in 200 buildings of 17 hospitals in Budapest – in a record time of 546 days!
Efficiency improvement and the growth of order volume also played a significant role in the increase of revenues.