Interview with Joanna Gąsiorowska, President of the Management Board - Rarytas Sp. z o.o.
What was 2016 like for the Rarytas Company? Please, give us a brief summary.
Outlining 2016 briefly, I can say that it was a year of changes in our company, meaning changes for the better! They are connected with a grant we received for the development of our business within the framework of Intelligent Development from European Funds. At present, we are closing the procedure of selecting a contractor for this enterprise. And it is a big venture, a new production hall with a warehouse, and above all – with a state-of-the-art production line. We are creating a new Rarytas. Our goal is also to make these changes go unnoticed by our partners. By cooperating with the German company Lecker Snack GmbH, Rarytas Sp. z o.o. wants to gradually introduce its products produced specifically for the German market. We are hoping that this cooperation shall provide many benefits for both companies.
Cakes, biscuits, crackers, biscuits with cream filling - the offer of Rarytas is diverse. What novelties, and in which categories, have already appeared, or shall appear soon?
At present, our developmental strategy focuses in particular on salty snacks, so we have novelties in this segment of our products. In 2016 we released two totally new types of crackers in various tastes. The first type are crackers released in February 2016 on the domestic and foreign markets, classic crackers and spicy crackers of 100g weight, with a traditional taste and shape, packed in a delicate mold. The success of these products gave us an impulse to release in the mid-year the next two tastes in this series of products: bacon crackers and onion crackers. They are available in all chain stores in Poland and on the following markets: Czech, Spanish, Hungarian. The second type is ‘Delicate Salty’ crackers and ‘Bacon Delicate Salty’ in 100g, 200g and 1 kg packages.
Pro-health trends in consumer choices include also the market of sweets and snacks. Please tell us something about the products with the Zdrowy Rarytas [Healthy Rarytas] logo.
Zdrowy Rarytas is our project which tries to meet our consumers’ needs, as well as trends which are starting to appear on the market of salty snacks. Under the mentioned project, our company created a totally new technology of cake production, it is registered and it is subject to application for patent. Products bearing the Zdrowy Rarytas logo give information to consumers that these cakes contain minimum quantity of acrylamides, fatty saturated acids, glycidol esters and 3 MCPD, that is substances not wanted in our diet because of their carcinogenicity. These are substances whose presence in our daily diet is unavoidable, e.g. they are present in roasted coffee or doughnuts, or chips, etc. But we can radically cut down on those substances and that’s the goal of the products bearing the Zdrowy Rarytas logo.
Which foreign markets are the most open to Polish sweets and snacks? Which products from the Rarytas’ portfolio are enjoyed the best by foreign consumers?
By cooperating with large store chains “we are present” almost in all Europe under private label brands of those stores. Cakes and biscuits with our logo are available almost everywhere in the world, in Surinam, China, or closer, e.g. our biscuits with cream filling are available in Algeria. As far as European markets are concerned, traditionally our products are available among others in Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia and Hungary. Preferences regarding tastes are as different as cuisines which are characteristic for a given country, that is why our offer is so diverse both in taste and in shape. However, it seems that everywhere the most popular is the classic cracker, slightly salty, obviously included in our offer.
What are the export goals of the company for the coming years?
As always, our plans are very ambitious. We will try to strengthen our position on the markets where we are already present. Our main goal is to improve sales to our neighbour, close not only in its location, meaning Germany. We are counting on increased sales through the company Lecker Snack GmbH, whose products can already be seen on our stand. We also want to ‘open up’ to Scandinavian markets and the French market. We are already finishing our works on releasing another cracker on to the market, “Joy Crackers”, delicately salty with a round but bigger shape, weight 200 g, packed – and it is a total novelty especially on the Polish market, in a carton box. This product will be ready for the ISM 2017 Fair! Feel free to visit us.
Thank you for the interview. Monika Górka.