Master Good: quality is the only long-term strategy for success
The Master Good Group in Hungary strives for efficiency, quality, increased automation and sustainability to secure its long-term prosperity. A combination of GEA technology and know-how is helping the company achieve its aims and release the passion of four generations of the Bárány family.
Customer profile
The Master Good Group, started in 1994, is run by four generations of the Bárány family: the oldest poultry breeding dynasty in Hungary dating back 115 years. The company manufactures a range of chicken products and ready meals and employs 2800 people. It now includes Saga Foods, which it acquired in 2020. The group’s factories are among the most efficient of their kind in the world and almost exclusively served by GEA technology.
"When challenges come, those who are the most efficient have least to fear."
László Bárány, Managing Director
The challenge
Master Good has multiple objectives. Firstly, its strategy is to focus on quality over quantity and to be as efficient as possible. “When challenges come, those who are the most efficient have least to fear,” said László Bárány, who, with his brother Peter, represents the fourth generation of the family to run the company. As part of that ambition, Peter explained, the company needs to increase automation both to smooth operations and ensure better products. “Populations are aging so there will be fewer people for the hard jobs,” he said. Finally, the company aims to by carbon neutral by 2030.
"It gives us more flexibility and the potential to launch new products that improve our market share, give us more sales and, hopefully, more profit."
Peter Bárány, Managing Director
The right performance
The relationship between GEA and Master Good is a long one. Together the companies are working to achieve the objectives. For example, László spoke about the new cooking line at the Petneháza factory. “It’s state of the art,” he said. “But it’s not us saying that, it’s our customers. They are fascinated by what they see there. They really like the opportunities that such a precise line can offer.”
All the Master Good factories are packed with GEA innovation. This includes the GEA Batch2Flow system that moves mixed product to the former while maintaining its temperature and viscosity and preventing contamination. Then there’s the new slicing and packaging line which Peter says has massively increased capacity while reducing labor costs to a quarter of what they were with the older equipment. “It gives us more flexibility and the potential to launch new products that improve our market share, give us more sales and, hopefully, more profit. This is what state-of-the-art means to us.”
The plant also uses GEA spiral freezers with CALLIFREEZE that ensures the correct level of freezing for every product for maximum efficiency.
But it’s not all about technology. Cooperation plays a big part. “GEA not only makes great machines, it also brings us solutions for our challenges,” explained László. Peter agreed: “If you choose professional partners, they always take you forwards by showing different ways of doing things,” he said.
So too when it comes to sustainability. GEA has developed systems that use less power and can work with mono materials that can be recycled easily. Peter explained that these advances are helping them reduce plastic usage and, perhaps in the long term, eliminate it completely. “If we always use the best technology, I think it will come.”
