The civilian fighter

I am the descendant of an architect family, but contrary to my father, I chose construction already back in the eighties - tells us József Király, owner and CEO of the Kecskemét-based Free Line Construction Ltd., about the beginning. The young Kecskemét-native took an architect degree in 1979 at Miklós Ybl college, and found work the same year in the construction industry, at the Bácsépszer company. "I have climbed the career ladder - I have been a foreman, a deputy construction leader, and eventually a top manager". It was from this level that he got transferred to the apparatus of the Bács County Party Committee, where he helped the reorganisation of large construction companies with problems. However, he didn't like this task so much and returned to Bácsépszer in 1988, where there was a very well-working interest system in place at the time. They did not allow employees to work privately within their profession, but they paid well. "From my earnings there, I opened 'round the clock-shops in Kecskemét where I sliced the salami myself" - remembers the entrepreneur.
But the world also turned around him at the regime change. He was invited overseas by his relatives living in Canada, but he felt better at home and came back from Toronto in 1991 after having spent a few months there. "I realised that there is a new world beginning here at home, in which you can reach success with purposeful, tenacious work". After his return home, he left Bácsépszer and started his own business. He financed the start from the income of the 'round the clock-shops, and later from selling them.

A "Trabant beginning"
"On April 1st, 1992, (i.e. "fools' day"), me and my four colleagues started in the construction industry from virtually zero with Free Line Ltd., using a green Trabant which we loaned the money to pay for. At first I thought about refurbishing and carrying out smaller tasks. I signed the first contract with trembling hands" - the CEO remembers the difficult start. He hoped that quality work and accuracy will be a higher priced commodity in the newly born capitalistic structure. As they couldn't even dream of getting assignments from his former employer Bácsépszer (József Király was "banned" from the company after his leave), they tried to get an assignment in Budapest, where an incredibly fast-paced development started after the regime change. The first order, which also was the base for the company's successful development, was received from Hemingway Holding, whose Dunkin Donuts coffee shops were mainly implemented by Free Line Kft. Later, more orders came: the general construction works of Pizza Hut (by that time also part of the Hemingway group), the Bonbon Hemingway shops, the Ofotért and Vision Express shops of the Fotex group, the Margaret Island Ramada Hotel, the bank offices of ABN AMRO. From the mid nineties, the company participated in such big investments as the reconstruction of Mol petrol stations in the Southern Great Plain area, the Pólus Center, the construction of the M5 freeway, or the Váci street center of Westel 900 GSM. 
By the turn of the Millennium, Free Line had approximately 300 million HUF turnover, which it reached with 15-20 own employees and the same number of subcontractors. The development could have been quicker, but they didn't want to participate in the housing boom of the nineties, no matter how attractive this might have seemed. "The indebtedness chain of the construction industry started then and there" - says the businessman, who suggests that some apartment building companies started the projects knowing they would not be able to pay the subcontractors. Free Line stuck with the construction of retail properties. The financing always meant a problem even so, since the clients paid with ever longer lead-time, and the company was forced to use bank loans from the end of the nineties, partly to develop the assets, partly to pre-finance the obtained contracts.

Back to Kecskemét
The year 2002 brought another big jump, since they obtained (through a public procurement procedure) the renovation of the national monunment building Cifrapalota in Kecskemét, which meant a 250 million HUF order from the county municipality. By finishing this task in 2004, they managed to set foot in Kecskemét, where they have participated in the reconstruction of several art relic properties, and they could increase their turnover lately, despite the decline of the construction industry. The next jump took place in 2004, when the owner of the enamel powder producing company in Kecskemét (Zománc Zrt) offered 55.2% of the company shares for sale. Free Line Kft. bought these shares partly through a 4 year loan from UniCredit Bank, which was possible by using the guarantee of Garantiqa Hitelgarancia Zrt. (just like in case of the the company's other current assets loans). Even though this company has given up its original profile of manufacturing since then, replacing it with trading with enamel and furnaces- generating a 700-800 million HUF turnover in 2008, its acquisition by Free Line was not mainly sensible because of its business activity, but because of the 1.3 acre property, close to the center of Kecskemét, where the headquarters of Free Line Kft. can also be found now.
The company group of the CEO, who in the meantime also took a second degree of art relic engineer, is producing a 1.5 billion HUF turnover by now, including Zománc Zrt., employing 50 people. During the last few years, they built branch offices for several banks (beside Budapest Bank and Inter-Európa Bank, mostly for Unicredit Bank), but they also worked on the construction of fast food restaurants and pizzerias. They have made their way into Tesco, too: the implementation of two recently opened Tesco Express mid-size stores can also be connected to their name. At companies similar to Tesco, authenticity and liquidity are naturally also most important: to obtain these assignments, they needed a bank cover that was also possible to get with the help of Garantiqa's guarantee.

The man in jeans
The emerging crisis during last autumn brought out surviving reflexes also at Free Line Kft.: as other companies, they rationalised the number of employees and decreased costs. At the same time, they have plans beside survival. The CEO mentioned the property development at the company premises and the participation in the Mercedes investment in Kecskemét, which they have really high hopes about. József Király, who remained a "man in jeans" despite his business career, also undertakes a social responsibility. His company supports local artists and manage a sport club that gives training possibilities for BMX bikers beside the "Nanbudo" martial art (related to karate). The 50 year-old CEO is also an active sportsman: he is a five dan Nanbudo master and President of the Hungarian Nanbudo Association. He is a board member of the Japanese-Hungarian Friendship Organisation and President of the Kecskemét City Development Union. As he says, they would like to make people realise the importance of civilianship - it is not the politicians who have to tell people what to do, but the other way around.

Source: Pont Magazin, December 2008
Text: László Banyár