The roots of the brush production in Monor, Hungary date back to the beginning of the 1900s, when Ferenc Kovács rented one of the back rooms of the Jókai-street bakery and started manual brush making. Soon, the Kovács Brush Factory was formed from the simple small workshop. Over the years, the small plant transformed into a huge factory employing hundreds of people, reaching its heyday in the 70s and 80s after the merger of government owned factories, when Hungarian brush manufacturers exported their products to many parts of the world. At that time, the Monor Brush Factory was the most important Hungarian brush maker, and its activity extended to a number of areas that could not be closely linked to brush making, so it was also a metal casting and logaret manufacturing plant, but the company was also involved in toy production for a short time. At the beginning of the 1990s, the transformation of the economic system and, in this context, the transformation of the trade structure had a serious impact on most of the Hungarian brush factories and plants. At this time, the transformations of the Monor Brush Factory began, resulting in the emergence of European-standard brush making and trading, which has made the Company one of the leading players in the Hungarian market.
At the end of 1991 the state-owned factory was converted into a limited liability company. As the forms of household-chemical merchandise wholesale have evolved over the years, it has become increasingly evident that the product structure and service levels that were used to date are no longer sufficient to survive on the market. The inadequate handling of market changes has put many large-scale factories (Debrecen, Szeged) in an unprecedented situation, and the inadequate reaction has caused most of them to end.
Until then, the Monor rush Factory, which was exclusively engaged in production, started its commercial activity at this time, which still holds a significant share of total turnover, although the recent years have made the production again in the forefront. From the beginning of the 1990s, the Company has continuously introduced newer and newer commercial products, primarily as accessories for household brush products, such as plastic household items, metal and wooden handles, clothe hangers, doormats and non-locally manufactured brush products. Later on, the range was continuously expanded and the company's offerings included clothes bags, professional cleaning tools, paint tools, paint rollers. At that time, co-operation with the German company Coronet was established, and after several years of joint work, the German company unilaterally terminated the cooperation. Along with the transformation of the product structure, the number of trade partners has been constantly evolving. The most important partners - the various companies of the FÜSZÉRT chain - have ceased to exist, so to stay in the market we had to build up cooperation with new and new partners. At that time, the company became a supplier of METRO stores, and it also delivered good connections to Baumax stores, but at the same time maintained good relations with several wholesale companies in Hungary.
In the years before and after Hungary's accession to the EU, changes in market demand would have required the development of a more flexible production technology than before. At that time, the market for brush products was dominated by imported products, and the products of the Hungarian producers - mainly due to the technological disadvantages of the manufacturers against the western manufacturers - were unable to stand up to the price competition. The Italian and German manufacturers, mostly using computer-controlled, high-performance machinery, offered their products in large quantities and at a more competitive price, than Hungarian producers, and - thanks to advanced production technology - new and newer products were launched faster.
In 2003, in the year of the death of István Korsós, the founder of the company, the owners were forced to make a decision: either to seek out technological development and to compete with western, primarily Italian producers, or to significantly increase the share of trade within the business for the sake of survival. The final decision was the technological development, so this year the company acquired its first computer-controlled modern brush manufacturing machine from Osmas3 in Italy. The nature of production has evolved rapidly, and following the market demands, new products have been launched almost every week.
Thanks to new products and increased market work, the company's turnover has grown rapidly, resulting in new machine purchases. In 2006, two years after buying the second Osmas3 machine was purchased, the company bought its most modern machinery, STAR V2 from Borghi, one of the largest manufacturers of brush making machines. This machine significantly increased the production capacity. The machine is still one of the the most advanced machine on the market, and product development is almost a matter of days.
In the same year, the company decided to start producing floor mops. This was a completely new area, although the company had already had a strong market share by the marketed products. With the help of the mop manufacturing equipment purchased from Borghi, the production of mop heads has increased significantly in one year, and by 2007 the workshop has been replaced by a number of other machines, including automatic packaging machines, and the first mop manufacturing equipment has been replaced, and at the beginning of 2016 a much more modern packing equipment was purchased.
In 2010 and 2012, the company purchased new machines, the latest one - BORGHI SMART R32 machine - keeps the technological level of year 2012, and is still one of the most advanced machine on the market. With these developments, the company's manufacturing capacity has increased significantly, with up to 10-12,000 brush products being produced in one day. Developments and close cooperation with raw material suppliers have enabled the Company to replace products that have so far been largely imported, at competitive prices, with self-manufactured products. These novelties have been well received in the Hungarian market. Technological developments, continuous product development and the development of commercial activities are now a very prominent place for the Company in the market for brush products and household goods. In addition to consolidating and further developing its position on the domestic market, KEFA-Brush Ltd. attaches great importance to the introduction of its products on foreign markets, and further technological and product developments have already begun.
By the end of 2015, KEFA-Brush Ltd. has become a major supplier of multinational companies in Hungary, capable of continuously meeting the very high demands of these companies in terms of supply, fast availability and logistics services. In order to better meet the changing needs of the company, in 2015 the Company introduced a new integrated system that can meet the needs of the diverse and individual needs of trading partners, while managing corporate processes more accurately by integrating accounting and trading tasks.
It is very important to mention the other important brush industry activities of KEFA-Brush Ltd., the development and production of technical and industrial brush products. There is almost no area for Hungarian industry where there are no brushes in the technical field. The company has decades of experience in the production of such products, from the food industry to the pharmaceutical industry in many places. In the case of such a technical brush, the experts of the Company are already involved with the customer in the design phase of the brushes, thus ensuring the best solution for the customer. In cases where the Company's capabilities do not allow the production of certain products or parts, it will produce the desired products or parts with the help of cooperative partners, but in such cases, the Company will keep all phases of production in order to achieve the desired result. The production and distribution of technical brush products is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the Company.
KEFA-Brush Ltd. has successfully overcome the obstacles of the past years, renewed its technology, retained its rich traditions, and strives to develop continuously to become one of the most important players in the Hungarian household and technical brush market.