Happy Day instead of carrot puree

The search for a suitable location in Eastern Europe took a long time. Roman Rauch had already visited some old canneries, all "old wrecks". It was only in 1993 that someone showed him, on the outskirts of Budapest, an abandoned factory for the production of carrot puree, well situated and relatively new. It quickly became clear that something could be done with it.

An office in Manhattan, business trips to Los Angeles and South America. Jürgen, son of Franz Rauch, had been working for a commodity broker in New York for a year. A job in the USA was his childhood dream. "My father called me in September, they were looking for a managing director for the new company Rauch Hungaria Kft. It would be the ideal start for me, he said." Jürgen was not enthusiastic, he only agreed only after two weeks of intensive persuasion by his family.

Rákosmente instead of Manhattan
In November Jürgen moved to the 17th District of Budapest, Rákosmente, on the eastern outskirts of the city. "It was cold and foggy when I first set foot in the factory. There was a porter, two dogs, a telephone with a shared line - but no heating." Martin Berchtold from Ländle also moved to Budapest in January, a young technician. "We set up a first room, two tables and chairs, two used PCs and a printer from Rankweil. Then we plugged in a radiant heater and started building the factory step by step."

In the black after just one year
At first, Erich Rauch and numerous experts from the parent company provided support in the development of production, purchasing, sales, logistics and administration. At the same time Jürgen Rauch was putting together the local team. By May 1994, the first TetraPak production lines were starting up in Budapest and Rauch began to conquer Hungary's supermarket shelves. And then the young team in Budapest had a piece of good fortune: Russia opened its borders to goods "from the West". Jürgen Rauch: "There was no fruit juice industry there and they bought as much as they could get. We put our hearts and souls into producing as much as we could." Just one year after its launch, Rauch Hungary was in the black

What began at the end of 1993 with a large degree of improvisation in unheated, temporary offices at a former carrot concentrate factory developed into an important pillar of the company within a few years.