Gschwindt distillery for spirits, yeast, liqueurs and rum ltd

One of the later important companies of the modern Hungarian spirits industry was founded in 1856 by Mihály Gschwindt (1817-1897), born in Győr, on the corner of Üllői út and the former Serfőző út in Pest, on the site of the present-day Corvin cinema.

Gschwindt was a Catholic Hungarian industrialist, who later participated in the committees of the Budapest Commodity and Stock Exchange, and was a shareholder of the First Hungarian Share Brewery Ltd, Concordia Steam Mill Ltd and the Pesti Road Railway Company. In 1866, he transformed his initial plant into a joint-stock company, of which he became chairman, while Károly Adler, also born in Győr, was appointed CEO. Adler started working in Nagybecskerek at a young age, after finishing school in Pest and Leipzig, and in 1863 he joined Gschwindt's distillery, and under his leadership the joint-stock company became one of the largest producers of spirits in Austria-Hungary. The special feature of the distillery was that the shareholders recognised that the plant produced a lot of steam, which, with the available water, offered an excellent bathing opportunity, and so on 1 January 1870 the steam bath, open to all, was opened on the premises, which later compensated for the losses in the production of spirits even in the economically weaker years. For the successful operation of the company, the Gschwindt family received the nobility of Győr on 28 May 1872 (Mihály to be precise, and his children György, Aladár and Emília).

In 1873, the company had a capital of 700 000 forints and made an average annual profit of 80-100 000 forints. The profit depended mainly on the grain harvest of the year. At the same time, in 1880, the empty plots of land next to the factory in Kisfaludy and Práter Streets were purchased and the factory was expanded within two years. In 1885, Mihály Gschwindt handed over the management of the company to his son Dr. György Gschwindt (1854-1919) from Győr. The company flourished under György's leadership, even though the 1890s brought a general decline in the spirits industry. Part of the reason for this, incidentally, was the law on the distillation of spirits, which came into force on 1 September 1888 and allocated a quota of 542 000 hectolitres of pure spirit production in Austria-Hungary to Hungary, of which the Gschwindt factory received 8 260 hectolitres, a figure which steadily declined to 5 692 hectolitres in 1917. At the same time, the company expanded its business to Bosnia from 1889, a market which then developed well.

In 1897, the Gschwindt company opened a factory for the Törköly distillery in Nagykőrös, where they later also started the production of Cognac, but the founder of the company died in the same year, so the management of the company was left to György. For ten years he held both the position of president and CEO of the company, until in 1907 his son Ernő Gschwindt (27 September 1881 - 29 August 1932), who had a degree in philosophy, chemistry and economics, became CEO. In 1908, the factory had to move for town planning reasons in Pest, so they moved to Budafok on a 7 300 square metre site, which they wisely acquired in 1903, and bought another 2 800 square metres in 1909.

In the meantime, the cognac production in Nagykőrös had outgrown itself, so the company set up its next distillery in Kismarton, a renowned wine-producing region, in 1908, while production in Budafok started in November 1909. At the same time, the company's business headquarters moved not to Budafok, but to Ipar Street in the IX district. However, the war in 1914 put a halt to what looked like a steady economic growth. Many of the employees, including the CEO Ernő Gschwindt, were sent to the front, as he later took part in the battles of Uzsok and Tyrol as a hussar. Meanwhile, the company continued to expand and a warehouse was established in Szombathely in 1916 and in Bánffyhunyad in 1917.

Before the war, Gschwindt products were in great demand. They had secure export markets in Austria, Warsaw, Vilnius, St Petersburg, Moscow, as well as in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria and the USA. Their products were also successful at world exhibitions, winning gold medals with yeast in Paris in 1878, first prize in Trieste in 1883 and first place in Berlin in 1884.

In the meantime, György Gschwindt died in 1919, and the management of the company passed entirely to his son Ernő. The decision of Trianon, like other industries, meant that the company lost its former markets, and the trade policies of the Axis countries made long-distance transport itself difficult, which left their mark on the company, whose consolidated share capital in 1925 was 5,400,000 Pengl, but which continued to make a profit, reaching millions of Pengl by the end of the decade. No wonder that they were able to expand further in the countryside, setting up distilleries in Zalaszentgróton and Fülesd, and in 1926 they acquired a majority shareholding in the large distillery Hobé-Damase & Co.

With the unexpected death of Ernő Gschwindt on 29 August 1932, the management of the company passed to his wife, Ernő Gschwindt (née Edit Thöry) and his daughter Edit Gschwindt (later Countess Antal Hadik of Futak) (1911-1982). The Second World War brought more years of crisis, followed by nationalisation. Thus the giant company became the Budapest Distillery, Yeast and Liqueur Factory National Company in 1946, then the National Company of the Distillery Industry Budafok Yeast and Distillery in 1963; in 1971 the Distillery and the Yeast Factory were separated, the latter in 1992 became BUSZESZ Rt. In 1992, it was taken over by the Austrian Mautner Markhof, and in 1995 it became an independent company under the name of Budafok Yeast and Sesar Factory Ltd. and was finally acquired by the French Lesaffre Group in 1996, which has been operating as Lesaffre Hungary Ltd. since 2006 in the former Gschwindt site in Budafok.

Sources:

Mór Gelléri: Pioneers of Hungarian Industry. Biographies and Character Sketches. 1887.

Hungarian Compass 1874-1944 | Arcanum Digital Library

Lesaffre Hungary | Lesaffre Hungary

Date of foundation: 1856

Date of cessation: 1946

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Author: by Dr. Márton Pelles