One of the largest Hungarian prefabrication companies is ready to jump

The PREbeton Zrt. was developed with the aim of Market Építő Zrt. BudaPart development, and today they are present on the market not only with wall panels, but also with products and industrial hall structures. We talked to Szabolcs Dávid, Business Director, about the developments of the past five years and their plans for the future.

Live at

"We started production in 2020, preceded of course by a preparation period. During this time, we not only had to figure out the operation, but also build the factory in Erdőtelk"

– recalled the director, thinking back to the early days. In the summer of 2020, they immediately began working at the 100,000-square-metre building, the headquarters of ecseri Jysk.

"It was deep water, we started with a big project, but we gained important experience here"

- he said.

The posts were then filled gradually, adjusting the number of staff to the workload. "When we started out," he continued, "there were only five or six of us, but then the departments and area managers were formed, so we started slowly, building from the top down. We now have about 190 employees of our own, including subcontractors, and 400 people working in the factory at peak times."

Currently, they produce more than 5000 m³ of concrete per month, which they can scale up to 6000 m³ per month. Moreover, this only includes elements for high-rise buildings, not including slab panels or even the production of scaffolding and paving stones.

"We can say that we produce the most batteries in Hungary today"

"We could not be here if," he said, "we did not have a top quality workforce in all the areas concerned. Those who work in manufacturing, logistics or on-site assembly also have a dedicated, value-focused attitude to the company, which we try to honour morally and financially. This year we welcomed 30 colleagues who have been with PREbeton for five years."

Much depends on the asset base

"We have developed a lot in the last five years, the quality of our products is certainly among the two best in the domestic market, but our biggest advantage in the market is our organisation"

- the director pointed out the company's strengths. "We have taken much of the practical way of running the company from the Market, but we have also upgraded the quality control department to our own standards and taken a number of measures that have resulted in the quality of our products being absolutely at the forefront of the PREbeton."

To create a good quality product, the raw material itself must be excellent. They work with self-compacting, high-strength concretes, which are subjected to continuous laboratory testing and inspection.

„We must use high-quality concrete, but," he emphasised, "it is just as important to have a good template park. We work with German Construx formwork systems, which are the most modern available on the market."

"We have elements that are infinitely adjustable. So, for example, for a stretched I-beam, we not only have 5 or 6 sizes available, we can adjust them almost infinitely to suit your needs."

They can react to changing situations within hours

And their tooling allows them to produce almost all the components needed for prefabrication themselves. They also manufacture the locksmith assemblies in their own plant, supported by a well-equipped and highly automated joinery shop. The cutting, tailoring and bending of reinforcing steel is already carried out in-house, again with programmable machines and with high precision.

"For our customers," he summarized the benefits, "the fact that they don't have to wait weeks for materials to be procured gives them enormous certainty of delivery.

It's not uncommon for a product to be designed, go into production the same day, and be ready to be taken out of the mould the next day. So we can react to changing situations and design changes within hours."

Solving the present and the future

Several types of wall panels are produced, which can be seen on BudaPart: coloured panels with integrated thermal insulation can be found on the site. Fibre insulation is used in the core of the panels, which is very different from conventional solutions. "The vapour diffusion properties of fibre insulation," he said, "are much better than polystyrene insulation, so we use that".

Moving towards further integration

"We are working on the installation of the windows in the factory and transporting them to the site, so that we can install the wall panels"

- said Szabolcs Dávid about the future plans, while he also reminded that "our customers are placing more and more emphasis on reducing our carbon footprint. We take into account the environmental impact of every raw material we produce, because our products can only be sustainable if this approach is reflected in every detail, and everyone has a responsibility to do this."

Today, the company, which has a turnover of €16 billion, has 20,000 square metres of production space and 60,000 square metres of logistics space, but is also focused on improving its own operations: 'we feel that our internal processes need fine-tuning.

We want to make sure that the customer doesn't have to think about which problem to discuss with whom; they have a few key players they can call at any time and get all their questions answered."

"We see a huge potential for prefabricated construction methods in the domestic market, but for them to spread further, a change in attitude is needed on the part of designers. They need to know the technology. "We encourage them to feel free to contact us," says Szabolcs Dávid, pointing out that "with digital data, we can provide all the information - including when we manufacture, where we store it and which elements have already been installed in the houses. This up-to-date data can make a big difference to the timing of a construction project."

Prefabrication is expected to dominate major construction projects in Hungary

"It has taken us more than five years of work to get our wall panels to the state they are in now. We have eliminated all the teething problems, we know all the details, all the nodes and fittings have been worked out by our designers and adapted to the needs of the installation team.

So we see that it is time for the use of our products to spread more widely in the market" - said Szabolcs Dávid.

As more than 80% of residential and office buildings in Scandinavian countries are already built with prefabricated wall panels, PREbeton is expected to dominate large-scale construction in this country. As the director points out, there are several reasons for this:

"traditional construction requires a lot of labour and high wages are a significant cost. The price of a wall panel should be considered in terms of total investment value, because since the electrical and mechanical preparation can be done in the factory, building with a wall panel can be 30-40% faster than conventional technologies. The workflow is greatly simplified, as, for example, for a façade, there is no need to call 5-6 subcontractors for scaffolding, insulation, plastering and painting. All these works can be omitted and so can their costs."

"We put a lot of emphasis on getting data from everything, and it's natural for us to design in BIM," the director warned, pointing out:

"We can delegate a site manager to every construction site, ensuring that there is always someone who can be consulted immediately, who can be asked about details - and who has the right to make decisions. This is key, because when a problem arises, they can react immediately. It gives customers a real partnership."