The FINANCIAL — Lithuanian Bakery, a company producing traditional Lithuanian bread in Georgia, is planning to open a new plant equipped with modern technologies and add new products to its existing assortment.
“This will be a modern plant, equipped with the latest technologies – the only one in the Caucasus region in terms of its scale and quality. This will be the biggest base for the export preparation of our products,” said Salome Bibilashvili, Marketing Manager at Lithuanian Bakery.
“Meanwhile, this year Lithuanian Bakery will introduce new products onto the market. From June we will offer premium-class white wheat bread made from an old Roman recipe, and a very delicious cherry pie,” she added.
As of today, Lithuanian Bakery offers four different lines of bread products: rye bread; white bread; buns and rolls; and crackers.
“I would like to single out some of the most distinguished breads of Lithuanian Bakery. Our Bran Bread strengthens the immunity by absorbing toxins and allergens. This bread is rich in cells, proteins and vitamins. Bread Marge is another very healthy bread by Lithuanian Bakery which consists of linen grains and does not contain sugar or yeast. Our Bread Monadiruli/Ludis Puri is made with ‘Megrelian Ajika’ [a hot and spicy Georgian sauce] and Lithuanian rye bread. And then there is our bread Gurmanebisvits. This is a rye bread with a garlic aroma which can help one to defeat viruses. Our diet bread is also a much-loved product from the assortment of Lithuanian Bakery,” said Bibilashvili.
For offering healthy products to Georgian customers Lithuanian Bakery received one of the most prestigious and influential awards in Georgia – Golden Brand.
“Lithuanian Bakery is the largest rye bread-producing company in Georgia, whose products are available in every part of Georgia. Producing healthy products is the priority for our company. We produce more than 40 varieties of bread products and the ingredients are imported from Europe. The high quality of each of the products of Lithuanian Bakery is recognised by the laboratories and is also proved by our receiving Golden Brand this year,” said Bibilashvili.
Q. Why are the breads of Lithuanian Bakery special and why should customers buy them?
A. Founded in 2005, Lithuanian Bakery is the largest producing company of rye breads. The breads are baked according to the oldest Lithuanian traditions and technologies and are 100 percent natural rye breads, without any chemical supplements.
B3, K, A, B1, E, B12 – the breads of Lithuanian Bakery are rich in these vitamins, which are vital for a healthy organism.
The uniqueness of Lithuanian Bakery bread lies in its unique technology, taste and low calories.
Lithuanian Bakery traditions require the minimal intervention of technologies, so a human workforce is doing the main job. That is why the bread baked by Lithuanian Bakery tastes like the bread baked at home.
Q. Food safety has become a prioritised direction for Georgia since the country became a signatory of the Association Agreement with the European Union. What positive developments can you highlight in this direction?
A. Regulations have been stricter recently and this is good for the customers as well as for honest enterprises.
There have been cases where dishonest and plagiarised enterprises have damaged the image of our company but we always strive to fight against such cases and continue our development on the market without any hassle.
Following the new regulations we have already renewed the label of Lithuanian Bakery production. Part of our products already have the new label while the rest of the products will have it in the coming months.
Q. How satisfactory is the quality of the bread on the Georgian market?
A. In general bread is the safest product as it is baked at very high temperatures. We import products from Europe which are of very high quality, but there have been cases where we have been forced to buy flour locally due to delays with imported products at Georgian customs. We have found that the flour on the Georgian market is not high quality and therefore it would be good if regulations were applied to the flour importers or producer companies as well.
In general I would say that quality bread is sold on the Georgian market.
Q. How would you summarise the year 2016 for the company? What were the main achievements and challenges that year?
A. Lithuanian Bakery is a growing and fast-developing company. In 2016 Lithuanian Bakery employed 40 percent more people than in 2015.
We added new modern stoves which helped us to grow the production volume.
The distribution network was also developed further and now the products of Lithuanian Bakery are available throughout Georgia.
Last year we got a license from Georgia’s Ministry of Health and Labour to produce diabetic bread.
Lithuanian Bakery registered its trademark so we are now able to fight against the companies who use similar labels and confuse customers.
Finally, we are proud of our sales statistics as the sales volume increased by 30 percent in 2016 compared to 2015.
Q. How positively did the year 2017 start for the company?
A. Despite the fact that there are big changes on Georgia’s retail market (a number of supermarket chains do not operate any more) our company strives to continue its development and further increase the sales volume.
We will open a new plant this year and offer higher standard products to customers.
We plan to start the export of Lithuanian Bakery products.
The year 2017 will be a crucial year for the company and will bring it one step closer to its main goal – to become the number one bread-producing company in Georgia.