Interviews

Interview with Krzysztof Kasztelewicz, Export Manager at Sądecki Bartnik.

Tuesday, 07 June, 2016 Food From Poland 25/2016
Please tell us briefly about the history and motto of your company.

Sądecki Bartnik is a family enterprise established in 1973 by the Kasztelewicz family. For us, beekeeping is more than just a job – it is our true passion. The seat of our company is in Stróże, a locality in southern Poland, in the heart of the picturesque Beskid Sądecki mountain range. This ecological surrounding allows us to obtain honeys of pure quality, both delicate spring ones and dark honeydew ones. The natural environment is a real treasur of healthy, organic products. Living in harmony with nature, we can fully benefit from it, and bees' honey is universally regarded as a real miracle of nature. Hence the motto of our company – “Miód natury cud” (Honey is nature's miracle). Our advantage is an apiary of our own with more than 1500 bee colonies. However, to meet the demand of the market, we also purchase honey from trusted beekeepers, locally and from abroad. We take advantage of the health-benefitting properties of honey and bee products, putting the individual needs of our customers first. The main goal we have been following since the very beginning of our enterprise is to give our customers full satisfaction and to join the best companies in our sector.

The honey produced by Sądecki Bartnik is sold throughout Europe. What is the key to success?

We are a company actively operating both in the Polish food market and abroad. Our honeys are appreciated by an increasingly wider group of consumers as well as stores that supply themselves with our products, and the “Sądecki Bartnik” brand is among the most widely recognized honey brands in the Polish and European market, enjoying confidence and appreciation of consumers for a quarter of a century. Our enterprise is oriented to acquiring high-quality bee products and offering a safe and healthy product. Every honey batch undergoes complex physical and chemical tests at our laboratory. Following the standards enforced and our own high standards, we obtain quality which has already been appreciated by many domestic and foreign consumers, growing each year, for more than 20 years.

The Sądecki Bartnik company has been uninterruptedly participating in Apimondia for 20 years. The international nature of this event allows us to discuss and exchange information with both beekeepers and companies involved in the purchase, sale and conditioning of honey and bee products. Thanks to these trips, we are continuously broadening our knowledge and introducing innovations in the area broadly understood as apiculture.

How are the origin and properties of the Sądecki Bartnik products stressed in cooperation with foreign partners?

Sądecki Bartnik, being an efficiently managed company, is developing very intensely, as it is oriented predominantly to quality, ecology and full customer satisfaction. The capital of the brand is the good quality of the products offered, professionally qualified employees, knowledge of the market dynamics, flexible response to changes occuring on the market, as well as courageous planning of investment and marketing activities.

Each year, the ecological awareness of society is radically increasing. This is true for virtually every aspect of life. We are aware of this and we are also trying to present our offer appropriately. We know that satisfied customers will be coming back for successful products. Confidence in the producer reinforces the consumers’ certainty they have bought a good product.

We have ISO9001 and HACCP quality management systems in place, and we have obtained food safety standards certificates: BRC and IFS. Our products have won the “Teraz Polska” Promotional Badge and received the “Poznaj Dobrą Żywność” (“Try Fine Food”) label granted by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The granted certificates are a guarantee to our recipients that we meet all requirements to ensure the health safety of our products and a high level of quality.

What are the prospects of export development of the Sądecki Bartnik products and private labels?

The company’s products find recognition not only at home but on foreign markets, reaching mainly, Western Europe and Asian countries. The Sądecki Bartnik Apicultural Farm is mainly focused on brand products, but we also produce private labels according to the customer’s needs. We approach the preferences and requirements of our customers on an individual basis and strive to meet their expectations. We are flexible and open for cooperation proposals. And this creates perfect conditions for long-term and fruitful cooperation.

Which Sądecki Bartnik products enjoy foreign consumers?

To our foreign customers, we offer a wide choice of natural honeys, from multiflower, lime or honeydew ones to honeys referred to as BIO-products and honeys from distant parts of the world, such as lavender or eucalyptus honey. When choosing honey, consumers tend, increasingly often, to follow not just its taste but the properties and prophylactic use of the honey as well. All our honeys provide an opportunity to reduce sensitivity to allergies, to improve the condition of the organism, and to develop natural resistance against cold, therefore, the interest in a given product depends, as a matter of fact, on the consumer’s individual preferences.

Finally, I would like to say that both honeys and other bee products, such as propolis, bee bread, pollen and royal jelly, are real gifts of nature. They are a source of health, vitality and well-being for children and adults alike. Sourced from clean forests, meadows and fields, combined with perfect care for the condition of bee colonies, they ensure the highest quality of the offered products, and the society is aware that the less processed the product is, the better it is for health.



tagi: Krzysztof Kasztelewicz , Export Manager at Sądecki Bartnik. ,