The history of the company started in 1990 when the Austrian ÖAG Group established MART Sanitary Wholesale Kft. It was fully owned by the Austrians and was based in the 4th district in Budapest.
In 1899 the Austrian Fitting and Machine Manufacturer Ltd had established its first subsidiary in Budapest. The company quickly became market leader in the production of cast-iron floating cranes.
When the dualist political system ended the German company called Bopp & Reuther GmbH purchased the company and withdrew the money from its Hungarian business.
By 1990 the reestablishment of Mart took place.
In 1993 Mart opened its first branch, called MesterCentrum, at Székesfehérvár and by today we have 30 branches in Hungary. In the same year the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) division of the company was set up.
In 1994 Mart used its 17.000 square metre plot at Dunakeszi to build a Head Quarter (HQ) and a central warehouse with the storage capacity of around 2300 pallets of goods. At the same time next to the newly built HQ three additional points of sales were opened, including a MesterCentrum branch for our contractor and mechanic customers, a Central Sales Division which sells to big project works and on the phone to plumbers and a bathroom showroom with a "heating corner". We want to sell quality products to end-users through plumbers. To complete the construction works the former HQ building at Vörösmarty Street, Budapest was transformed into a MesterCentrum branch.
In 1995 through the acquisition of ÖAG Group, Wolseley Company from the UK became the owner of Mart Kft. Through this purchase Mart became a part of Wolseley, which is the number one distributor of building and plumbing products in the world.
In 1996 as the results of two acquisitions PR-OFFICE Kft from Pápa and FAP HUNGÁRIA Kft from Győr were integrated to Mart. At the end of August 1996 Mart organised its first "Home-fair".
In 1997 Mart was the first among the building products wholesalers in Hungary to be issued an EN ISO 9002 quality certificate.
In 1998 direct IT connection between the HQ and the MesterCentrum branches was established. Mart introduced delivery runs to its branches from the central warehouse to be able to offer weekly availability on products.
In 1999 Mart’s second "Home-fair" was visited by almost 1000 customers.
In 2000 to achieve faster customer service the MesterCentrum branch, next to the company’s HQ was transformed into a big sales desk where credit card payment was accepted too. A 3D bathroom planning service was introduced at our bathroom showroom, and to make the storage of the pipes easier Mart equipped its warehouse with a rolling crane. At the HQ an Offer Department and a Civil Engineering department were set up.
In 2001 at the 10th anniversary of Mart's opening a new marketing initiative called "Partner's Faith Project" was launched. The Project's first offer was running from 1st January 2001 until 31st December 2001.
On the 5th December 2001 Mart was the first to be issued an EN ISO 9001:2000 certificate among the Hungarian building products wholesalers.
In 2002 145 of Mart's customers won first prize on the "Partner's Faith Project" and received a trip to South Africa.
Also in this year the construction of Mart's new HQ and logistic centre started. Mart introduced night time deliveries to its branches in Budapest. To enable the sanitary ware division to catch up with growing needs of the customers a division leader was appointed.
In 2003 the second offer of the "Partner's Faith Project" started.
At the end of February the construction work at the HQ finished, as a result Mart got a 2000 square metre and 12 metre high new warehouse with a shelf storage system. That has the storage capacity for around 3700 pallets of goods.
In order to emphasise the complexity of goods Mart offered, its name was changed from Mart Building Engineering Wholesaler to Mart Sanitary Ware Wholesaler.
In March under the name of AquaMart a new 700 square metre big bathroom showroom next to the Árpád Bridge was opened and at the same time the bathroom showroom next to the HQ was also re-branded to AquaMart.
In December 2004 Mart opened its 28th MesterCentrum branch at Baja
And by the end of March, 96 of Mart's customers won first prize on the "Partner's Faith Project" and could participate in a trip to India.
From the 1st April Mart started stocking electrical products to be able to meet the changing needs of the customers. Mart started selling own branded products under the name of Mart Star
In June 2005 Mart organised its third "Home-fair" together with its preferred suppliers.
Two branches were opened at Balatonlelle and Esztergom, to make it 30 branches in total.
In May 2006 after 6 months of refurbishment works the AquaMart bathroom showroom at Dunakeszi was reopened. Apart from the new modern outlook the product range was refreshed to measure up to the expectations of the market.
In September2006 a brand new AquaMart bathroom showroom was added to an existing branch at Pécs.
In December 2006 after the acquistion of Woodcote the Wolseley Central and Eastern Europe Division were established.
In March 2007 we opened our branch in Vác. This increased the point of sales to 36 in total and this will continue to grow in the future.
"Our real success is the success of our customers!"