Growth boosted by investments

NOWEL Sp. z o. o. bakery in Legionowo near Warsaw is one of Poland’s market makers. To grow further, the company invests heavily in Western European plant technology.

+Polish bakery Nowel invested more than EUR 16m in new production capacity at the Legionowo site in early 2016. The bakery, located to the north of the Polish capital Warsaw, operates one of the company’s two production sites. The bakery’s capacities were increased considerably, including by the entry of an investor: Credit Value Investments (CVI). This gave the bakery a total of nearly PLN 33 million (about EUR 7.84) for further investment and growth. CVI’s Director Marcin Leja explained in an interview that the fund was prepared to give the bakery more support. The finance experts see further growth potential in the frozen baked products segment, especially for the Nowel bakery in Poland for example, as well as in exports of frozen baked goods. He also said markets are being explored and opportunities sought to purchase further acquisitions. Michał Zajezierski, VicePresident of the Nowel bakery, is satisfied with the path being taken. Thus target sales for 2017 are around EUR 40 million. The revenue target for 2020 is around EUR 80 million.

The family business can look back on a long tradition. Michał Zajezierski’s great-grandfather already operated a bakery near Warsaw. His son took the company over in 1960, and expansion and relocation occurred in 1997 when Michał’s mother entered the business. This created a 3,500 m 2 production facility, and the staff began to manufacture frozen products. A second 18,500 m2 production unit in Legionowo followed between 2013 and 2014. Today the building contains five lines and a high-rack frozen product warehouse. However, space is already planned for three more lines that will soon be commissioned. Nowel employs a total of around 500 staff, of which 250 work round the clock, seven days a week, to produce pre-baked goods for clients in Poland and for export. Karolina Zajezierska, the bakery’s Commercial Director and sister of Vice-President Michał Zajezierski, explains that “Buyers of the frozen baked goods include supermarket chains and discounters.” The bakery is regarded as the market leader in the segment producing Kaiser rolls and Wachauer Laberl (bread rolls with a cracked bloom/ surface). However, the bakery is also in the lead with certain mixed and wholegrain breads. As far as turnover is concerned, the bakery’s own estimates put it in TOP 5 players in Poland.

The bakery has ambitious growth plans, which according to Michał Zajezierski’s assessment can also be achieved by fully automating the production operation. The VicePresident says “We can follow trends in the baking sector, respond flexibly and increase productivity by investing in new technology.” In this respect, the company depends mainly on Western European plant constructors such as Rademaker, König, Diosna or Mecatherm. The majority of turnover, around 75%, is currently still generated in the Polish market, with approx. 25% of frozen baked products being exported. According to Karolina Zajezierska: “We plan not only to produce more baked goods, but also a further increase in the export ratio.” The Commercial Director can see enough opportunities for growth. For example, on the one hand Polish food retailers rely increasingly on “bake-off” and on baking off frozen goods directly on the spot in the supermarket. On the other hand, there is a worldwide increase in demand for high-quality baked products. For example, the bakery already supplies customers in Central and Eastern Europe today, and even in the USA and Russia. However, the brother and sister can also see potential for growth in Western Europe. Moreover, there have already been business deals with Middle East.

A trend observed by the Zajezierski siblings is the growing demand for baked products with few or no additives. Of course, Michał Zajezierski took this development in the market into account when investing in new plant. According to the Vice-President, “Our philosophy is high quality baked goods and as far as possible clean label products. The Dutch plant constructor Rademaker offered support and solutions in this regard, and I think we have the best solution from the best supplier.” In particular, the baked goods produced by the Rademaker plant have the required structure as well as the necessary high baked product volume. For this, seven employees look after the entire line from dough preparation to packing the baked goods.

Vice-President Michał Zajezierski explains that “Our doughs rest in the bowl for a longer while before further processing. We use neither additional gluten nor guar gum in this process. Nonetheless, due to the new Rademaker plant we obtain good baked product volume and can avoid the use of other baking agents.” A dough pre-former at the start of the line creates an almost stress-free dough sheet. Processing that is gentle on the dough is important during dough sheet production, to ensure that the dough’s structure is retained. Reducing stations then ensure the required dough sheet thickness.

Michał Zajezierski explains that the new Rademaker plant enabled baked product quality to be improved. It allowed the dough resting time to be lengthened. Mark Haarsma, Area Sales Manager for Rademaker BV, explains that “The line also processes such doughs very gently.” Haarsma adds that “The plant is designed so as to allow the dough properties to be adjusted very flexibly to create a “stress-free” dough sheet.” The plant also offers high flexibility and a product change can be carried out within a short time. Furthermore, only very little dusting flour is needed, and the designers took care to ensure good accessibility to the line when developing the plant. This makes it easy for the bakery’s staff to clean the machine. Another aspect is high weight accuracy. Before being cut by guillotines, the dough sheet is weighed, and is cut correspondingly accurately. The dough pieces can also be strewn, e.g. with seeds and grains. Mecatherm proofers and ovens take over the dough pieces downstream of the dough sheeter.

As well as baguettes and ciabatta, another specialty offered by Nowel is 100% rye bread with their own sourdough (3-stage process). Bread rolls are also made. Michał Zajezierski explains that “We produce up to 45 million bread rolls per month, and want to increase our capacity.” The entrepreneur has also invested in another König bread roll machine, intended to increase output capacity considerably and to secure market leadership. Its weight range is from 35 to 120 grams. In total, around 190 tons of baked goods now leaves the Legionowo production facility every day. The family aims to increase output capacity to 300 tons/day. Here again, investments focus on producing high-quality, preservative-free baked goods without using any other additives. Capital is also to be invested in new frozen product storage capacities and in sponge dough and sourdough plants to increase baked goods quality still further. +++