First Professional Day in Vienna
Balázs Kovács (GD Consulting) organised the first Vienna Professional Day on 23 September 2021, where we got to know the good practices mainly of Hungarian businesses in Vienna, that are in line with the Shop of Region concept.
We started the day at the Embassy of Hungary in Vienna, where we met with Ambassador Dr. Andor Nagy and the staff of the Foreign Economic Office, Dr. Nóra Tefner, Attaché for Foreign Economic Affairs. The Ambassador was very interested in the presentation of the project and assured us of his support with great openness and some suggestions.
Afterwards we visited the Bitzinger Würstelstand (https://www.bitzinger-wien.at/), where we were welcomed by Mr. Sepp Bitzinger, the gastronomic "pope" of Vienna, President of the Vienna Somelier Association and former Vice President of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. He drew our attention to the importance and role of appropriate quality criteria and branding. He suggested that one of our next visits should be to Am Kutschker Markt, which is still a real traditional Viennese market with quality products.
The third stop of the day was the Wiener Christmassalon (https://www.wienerchristmassalon.at/), whose Hungarian owner, Anita Gosztol, has set up a shop and a unique Christmas museum in Franciscan Square, selling "Christmas" 365 days a year. The success of the business, which was started five years ago, is that it has been accepted as a Hungarian into the closed Viennese market. 40% of the Christmas decorations are sold to local residents and 60% to tourists, but the pandemic situation has led him to increase the presence of local customers. The shop can only sell along the Christmas concept and does not specifically indicate on the products where they come from. In addition to the shop, the Christmas decorations are sold via a webshop and the products are also sold B2B, but there is also a significant income from services (photography, workshops, small events, etc.).
The next stop is the recently opened Cewart wine shop (http://cewart.at/), specialised in selling Central European volcanic and organic wines. The shop is run by wine expert Zoltán Németh and somelier Ádám Bencze, who sell some local products alongside the wines. During the wine tastings, the high quality degustation menu also includes Hungarian products (Sopron bread - Kovászüzem, foie gras pâté, Tebike cheese). But they also sell some special food products (e.g. vinegars, oils, etc.), run a webshop and host small events.
We ended the day in the small shop Paprika Jancsi, run by Renáta Rajkó, which offers typical Hungarian products from small-scale producers to larger domestic producers, but also homemade products. The shop's clientele consists mainly of Hungarians living in Vienna and lower-status Austrian customers (who also find the low prices high).
