The HFDA’s Fourth Manufacturers Mentoring Programme Concluded Successfully

The Manufacturers Mentoring Programme, created by the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency (HFDA) in collaboration with the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA), has ended. It provided opportunities for professional development to eleven Hungarian fashion and other creative industry manufacturers. The selected enterprises took part in a programme series comprising online webinars and customised one-to-one consultations held by the most important leaders of the Hungarian professional scene.

The Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency (HFDA) launched the first Manufacturers Mentoring Programme in October 2020, aiming to strengthen the domestic fashion and design manufacturing base and increase the export potential of local businesses with the support of excellent Hungarian professionals. Following the successful mentoring programmes of the past three years, the professional programme series was held for the fourth time, providing each participant with unified knowledge modules as well as a training plan freely chosen and flexibly designed by the manufacturers to acquire theoretical and practical knowledge. In 2024, we expanded the list of creative industry manufacturing categories – this time, applications were open for brands from the fields of bag, footwear, and jewellery making, household ceramics, the production of concrete-, plaster- and cement products, stone working, office and kitchen furniture, electrical lighting device and clothes and textile manufacturing.

During the evaluation, the jury, comprised of the representative of the HFDA, industry experts, and the members of HEPA, the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, focused on the market viability of the applicants' plans, their international competitiveness, innovation strategies, sustainability considerations, and the role they play in regional employment at their respective locations. The committee selected eleven domestic manufacturers who got the opportunity for professional development: Bérszövöde Kft., Thinwood Kft., Fabak Kft., Gaálhab Kft., Glass-Maker Kft., Inoosteel Kft., Metal Plus Kft., Minerva Team Kft., Petite Kft., Printextil Kft., and Manual Divat Kft. could participate in the training that lasted nearly five months.

The programme series kicked off with courses by the Export Academy Directorate of HEPA on marketing communication strategies, innovation management, and companies’ digital competence and export development; then, the HFDA held an eight-session seminar on brand, organisation, and web development and one-to-one consultations for mentoring programme participants. In addition to the theoretical webinars, one of the key components of the training was the period of in-person factory visits during which the experts provided personalised consultations to the mentored manufacturers, which focused not only on assessing actual market needs and opportunities but also on strengthening the relationships between the participants, mentors, and supporting specialists, the experience of collective thinking, and the birth of valuable professionals discourses.

In interviews conducted during the training period, the manufacturer teams described their personal and professional experiences and their plans for the future. The success of the mentoring programme is confirmed by the positive feedback from the manufacturers, who have gained not only useful theoretical and practical skills in the past five months but new and valuable relationships as well.