"Pallas" literary and printing ltd

The Pallas Literary and Printing Company was founded on 5 April 1884 and soon became one of the best-known printing houses in the country. Almost all the important scientific and public publications of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries were published by the most important printing houses in Hungary, including Pallas. The company was founded with a share capital of HUF 200 000, which was increased to HUF 400 000 in 1885. Károly Kerkápoly was the company's president, Dr. Lajos Gerő was its general manager, and Pál Gönczy and Pál Somssisch were other members of the board. The company was primarily engaged in newspaper publishing and secondarily in book publishing, the profits from which were generally split 2:1. The company was very profitable in the early years, with profits averaging around 40 000 HUF per year. The real breakthrough came in 1893 with the great lexicon series Pallas; after that, however, profits could 'only' increase to an average of 50 000 Frt per year, until the company increased its share capital to 600 000 Frt in 1897. At that time, the factory employed 450 skilled workers, with two steam engines of 40 hp each, 33 electric motors, a two-colour variable-speed rotary press, 22 quick-press machines, 9 American presses, 6 type-pressing machines and 18 other auxiliary machines. This made the plant one of the best equipped domestic printing plants at the time.

Then, from 1898 onwards, the company started on a path of hardship. On the one hand, more and more competitors entered the market, seeing the success of Pallas, and on the other hand, one of their main former distributors, the Révai Brothers, became direct competitors of Pallas, in addition to their former position, which not only made sales more difficult, but also took away some of their existing work. In addition, a minor economic downturn in the world market began at the same time, which affected many sectors (such as international freight transport) and the domestic printing industry, especially Pallas, was also threatened. Losses in 1902 amounted to K 541 611 (with a share capital of K 1 200 000), and the company remained at an annual level of K 540 000 until 1907, when it hit rock bottom. Then, from 1908, they systematically started to cut the deficit and, by slow steps, they were profitable again in 1912 and were able to make an average annual profit of K 100 000 during the war.

The post-war period brought renewed difficulties for the company. On the one hand, the country was in a difficult economic situation, on the other hand, the workers were also faced with constant problems in earning a living, while the supply of raw materials was also volatile. After consolidation, the company's share capital had risen to P1 200 000 by 1925 and the company was able to return to an average annual profit of P100 000, although in the meantime it had been taken over by the Catholic-owned Central Press Company. The global economic crisis did not affect the company to the same extent as it affected other industries, as it had been operating at around minimum output. It is true that the crisis led to Pallas being taken over by Stádium Rt. from the Central Press Company, and from then on it remained stable until the Second World War.

During the war, in 1945, it was taken over by Szikra Publishing and the two companies were essentially merged under the former's management under the name Szikra Literary and Publishing Publishing Company. In 1956, the former Pallas was transformed into Kossuth Nyomda, which finally ceased to exist in 2006 due to liquidity problems.

Date of foundation: 1884

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Author: by Dr. Márton Pelles