China’s First Hungarian-owned Medical Machinery Factory Starts Series Production

77 Elektronika is a major global developer, manufacturer, and supplier of in vitro diagnostic medical devices.

The 100% domestically owned 77 Elektronika Group, developing and manufacturing medical electronics products, made the first Hungarian investment in the machinery industry in China. The company set up a plant near Shanghai with an investment of almost USD 2 million.

The plant will manufacture LabUMat and UriSed automated urine testing machines for the Chinese market. The company, 77 Medical Devices (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., aims to produce 300 large-scale labs in the first year, but this could rise to 1,000 in a few years.

It was added that

77 Medical Devices (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the 77 Elektronika Group, operates on an industrial area of more than 1,000 square meters, housing manufacturing, warehousing, office, and other support areas.

The company is managed by a Hungarian managing director, Richard Mohr, and the other employees are Chinese.

It was also pointed out that the Hungarian family-owned 77 Elektronika Group has more than 20 years of experience in China, having sold its automated urine analysis laboratory equipment in the Far East country.

However, this latest move has taken the company to a new level, and with the Chinese government’s preference for local medical equipment in hospitals,

they have built a manufacturing facility near Shanghai, one of China’s most modern and advanced industrial centers.

The statement quoted Sándor Zettwitz, owner-managing director of 77 Elektronika Group, as saying that they had taken the step to remain competitive by selling labs with their own brand name and 77 logo as a Chinese company in one of the world’s largest and most populous countries. Series production started on Tuesday.

77 Elektronika started out as a company employing just a few people when it was founded in 1986, but has now grown into a group with more than 900 employees and one of the largest companies in the Hungarian healthcare industry. The company employs more than 120 development engineers in its Budapest and Balatonfüred (northern shore of Lake Balaton) factories, and the majority of its exports are sales of automated urinalysis systems based on UriSed technology (a professional automated urine sediment analyzer). The biggest markets are the EU, the US, Brazil, Türkiye, Chile, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh, but in total they export to almost 100 countries.

According to publicly available company data, 77 Elektronika had net sales of HUF 35.19 billion (EUR 88 million) in 2023, and HUF 38.30 billion (EUR 95 million) in 2022. The company closed last year with a profit of HUF 1.67 billion (EUR 4.1 million), compared to a profit after tax of HUF 6.38 billion (EUR 15.9 million) a year earlier.

Via MTI; Featured image via LinkedIn/77 Elektronika Ltd.