Elbisco

ELBISCO

LOVE LIFE, EAT GREEK, LIVE WELL

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LOVE LIFE,

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eat Greek,

live well Elbisco is a leading Greek manufacturer of snacks and bakery products. Dr Irene Pateras, Director of Innovation and Sustainability and Ms Ioulia Rachioti, Quality Assurance and Regulatory Manager, outlined the company’s three sustainability pillars – responsible growth, harmonious living and balanced snack choices – to Jordan Yallop and Phil Nicholls.

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or Greek snack and baked good producer Elbisco, the goal of operating with ethos equates to responsible growth, harmonious living and balanced snack choices. The company is focused on achieving financial stability and robust business practices.

Elbisco began in 1987 when pioneering entrepreneur Kyriakos Filippou united the three historic Greek brands of Allatini, Elite, and Kris-Kris under the umbrella of a single company, creating a large modern Greek company in the flour and bakery snack sector. A further acquisition came in 1995 when the rusk manufacturer N Vossinakis joined the fold.

Elbisco’s brands are familiar and loved household brands in Greece.

Allatini, is a leading premium biscuit and packaged flour brand with heritage in the Greek market, providing a wide range of products for the entire family by offering new and upgraded choices of sweet snacks biscuits, cookies, cakes and a wide range of flours.

Elite is a traditional trusted brand of rusks, which has also expanded into the category of salty snacks with the Elite Mediterranean Crackers, enhancing the company’s export activity.

Kris Kris is a long established packaged bread brand in Greece, recognized for providing a wide range of delicious

and innovative products such as sliced bread, burger/sandwich buns and pittas.

The rusks and flour that make up the Vosinaki and Forma brands are just as popular too.

Elbisco’s products are manufactured in two locations in Greece, one in Pikermi in Attica and the other in Chalkida on Euboea.

The company has 700 employees and a turnover of €105 million, producing 58,700 tonnes of product. The broader group of companies has two further factories in Skopje and an additional 400 employees. The consolidated group turnover was €122 million in 2020, an increase of 4.9% on 2019.

Responsible growth Part of Elbisco’s responsible growth policy includes a series of investments. In 2018, Elbisco constructed a state-of-the-art rusk production facility by expanding the existing production facility in Chalkida. With an investment of more than €20 million, the new factory was intended to increase Elbisco’s production capacity, ensuring even higher quality and safety standards and reducing the company’s environmental footprint.

“Elbisco now ranks among the technological leaders of food plants in Europe,” explained Dr Irene Pateras, Director of Innovation and Sustainability. “The new state-of-the-art production unit, which

became fully operational in 2019, is housed in a new building with a total surface area of 8,000 sqm.

“Our new production line has a capacity of up to 19,000 tonnes per year and is characterised as one of the largest rusk production faciliies in the world. The new factory’s design and implementation followed the highest specifications of European safety standards, with fully automated state-ofthe-art equipment.”

The new facility offers an average of 7% energy savings compared to the old production line over the previous four years.

This average breaks down to 6% reductions in thermal energy use and 10% reduction in electricity use. Such environmental considerations are part of the company’s sustainability objectives.

A harmonious environment The second pillar of Elbisco’s sustainability strategy is harmonious living.

In this pillar’s context, Elbisco is committed to creating and distributing value through its activities to all its stakeholders.

At the same time, as a responsible employer, the company seeks to provide a safe and healthy working environment and to create value for employees by enhancing employment, developing and training all personnel.

A core element of harmonious living means embracing environmental sustain-

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ability initiatives. Elbisco’s upcoming two year plan will see the company switching to renewable energy sources, replacing the use of LPG with LNG in all production facilities.

“We use 100% green electricity for the operation of the production facilities,” said Quality Assurance and Regulatory Manager Ioulia Rachioti, adding that Elbisco has also strengthened its recycling practices by investing in additional training for its packaging workers. Currently, 80% of the company’s packaging materials are classified as recyclable; Elbisco expects to further increase this percentage by developing additional policies.

“Our focus in sustainability is an integral part of our business model and strategy,” continued Dr Pateras. “In all our business activities and strategic planning, we aim to operate in a responsible manner, creating shared value for our entire value chain.

We contribute to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and commit to operate, grow, and evolve responsibly, with reliability and trust as the basis of our business operation. Elbisco also commits to creating value for our consumers through production and distribution of quality and nutritionally balanced products.”

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Suppliers and partnerships Elbisco’s relationships with suppliers are fundamental for ensuring sustainable growth. “In the context of creating long-term value for our entire value chain,” Ms Rachioti noted, “we design the supply chain in a way that allows us to ensure business continuity and seamless collaboration. We build trusted relationships with more than 400 suppliers, while we focus on creating value for our Greek suppliers, that have consistently accounted for more than 85% of our total suppliers for the past four years.

“Our partnerships with suppliers are governed by strict standards of safety, quality, and responsible business.

We assure the purchasing of required materials, raw materials, machinery and services by applying strict supplier selection procedures.

“We have established and implemented a policy that defines the criteria for their evaluation and selection. This policy applies to suppliers of raw materials, packaging materials and services as well as to all other partners. The requirements integrated in our policy set out criteria relating to the following sectors: environment, human rights, the fight against corruption and working

conditions. The collaboration, dialogue, and communication to disseminate the principles of sustainable development throughout the entire value chain is an important priority for Elbisco.”

Innovation and balanced snack choices Elbisco is committed to creating value for consumers through the production and distribution of quality and nutritionally balanced products.

“Recognising modern nutritional needs, we are committed to investing in innovation and development in order to continuously enhance our product range with products of added value and balanced nutritional profile. Committed to communicate the product truth, we focus responsibly on both labelling and marketing communications,” said Dr Pateras.

“At Elbisco, our aim is the well-being of our consumers as well as providing the comprehensive information they need to make conscious and nutritionally balanced product choices,” explained Dr Pateras.

“Therefore, we understand and respond to their needs responsibly. In this context, we are developing strategies to enrich our product range.

“Recognising that nutrition and human health are interrelated and that our consumers are increasingly oriented towards a balanced and healthy diet, we continue to expand our product range, providing choices that meet their expectations.

Driven by consumers, demand for healthier options, we design and build new product propositions and categories by unlocking

the value of whole grains and superfood.

In addition, we enrich our snacks portfolio with reduced or no sugar choices.”

Dr Pateras outlined Elbisco’s ongoing intention to embrace mindful snacking and positive nutrition propositions: “Our commitment towards the fulfilment of modern consumer needs for nutritionally balanced snacks entails readiness and flexibility in the product develop-

ment and manufacturing processes.

This is achieved through continuous monitoring of the advances in food science and technology and related sectors; through analysis of consumer choice trends and by advancing and strengthening our cooperation with academic and research institutes both in Greece and abroad, aimed at acquiring and creating new knowledge.” n

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