19 minute read
Notable
Largest Vertically Integrated Organic Food Producer in Europe
Organic products
Using proprietary and contracted manufacturing, AUGA group produces a wide range of organic food products for the end consumer: ready-to-eat soups, oatmeal cups, UHT milk, steamed pulses, canned vegetables, and more. Our products have received multiple prestigious awards and certificates.
AUGA’s organic, ready-to-eat products are produced in fully automated, stateof-the-art facilities located in the Baltics. All AUGA mushrooms and vegetables are grown organically, using innovative technologies that do not deplete the soil. Our advanced farm-to-final packaging process control ensures freshness and quality in every product produced. AUGA soups and canned products are packaged in plastic pouches which allow for 12-18 months shelf life. Product highlights include:
• Soups and canned products are ready-to-eat, vegan, preservative free, and gluten-free. • Oatmeal cups with natural fruits and berries have no added sugar and are dairy free and vegan. • Steamed pulses are ready-to-eat as a side dish and contain no brine.
The entire product line is vegan, preservative free, and gluten free. • Milk is sourced solely from AUGA farms with a delicious taste and full of vitamins. Packed in an exclusive and innovative bottle, AUGA UHT milks have a shelf life up to 365 days (180 days in Europe).
Private Label Solutions
AUGA offers private label solutions with an expertise of more than 5 million units produced for private label customers. The company has current private label projects in the USA, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Russia, and many others. AUGA stands out with a strong research and development team that continually invests in new product lines and technologically advanced equipment. For private label projects, AUGA offers many different packaging options including food service, variable shelf life, and custom recipes.
Organic Food with No Cost to Nature
AUGA group strategic business direction focuses on sustainability and environmental impact mitigation.
At AUGA group, we believe food can and should be organic and sustainably produced. Therefore, we take care of the land by naturally enriching it through crop rotation and using only organic fertilizers. By implementing this method, the land becomes more fertile and resistant to weeds or erosion so it can be utilized by future generations. At AUGA farms, we use modern machinery and apply the latest organic farming technologies while constantly improving our technology through innovation. We follow the ‘closed loop’ principle – all activities compliment and thrive on one another. The AUGA group proudly employs over 1,200 people who take care of crops and livestock and strive for continuous improvement so that the food we grow brings you joy.
Contacts:
info@auga.lt www.augaorganics.com For sales in North America thomas@pointoneintl.com
Lucart, Innovation and Sustainability
Lucart, a major European manufacturer of thin MG paper for flexible packaging is a key player in the consumer goods and Away From Home market as a producer and transformer of tissue and airlaid paper. Its attention to people, sustainable processes and approach to innovation mean that they offer cutting-edge products that meet market challenges and perfectly match the requirements of customers.
Fiberpack® is their flagship project in this field: it combines advanced technology and environmentally friendly processes, demonstrating that circular economy principles are fully applicable to the tissue sector.
Lucart created this project starting from the idea of using all the elements of beverage cartons according to circular economy principles. The production process relies on an innovative technology that separates the cellulose fibers found in beverage cartons from polyethylene and aluminum by physicalmechanical action. With this technology they don’t use any substances that may be harmful to people or the environment. They produce tissue products with the fibers obtained through this process and recover the aluminum and polyethylene, converting them into a homogeneous material called Al.Pe.®, which other industries use to produce a variety of items. The tons of Fiberpack® paper Lucart has produced from 2013 to 2019 have contributed to the recovery of more than 5.4 billion of beverage cartons, saving more than 2.3 million of trees, and preventing more than 141,000 t of CO2e from being emitted into the atmosphere.
Lucart’s continuous research and development work has led to many projects aiming to improve the quality and performance of its products. One such project has led to the innovative QMilk® process, which makes it possible to extract and transform the basic proteins in milk into a soft and precious fiber without the use of chemical agents. The process preserves the amino acids, and all the moisturizing and nourishing properties of milk in the resulting fiber. It guarantees a 100% natural formula that is dermatologically tested, ultra soft and highly resistant.
Lucart is also the only brand in its target market to offer airlaid products with exceptional absorbency and strength performance. The Airlaid technology uses long, highly resistant cellulose fibers that never come into contact with water during the production process (dry paper), so that they remain super absorbent. Fibers treated with this process naturally form a ‘“dam” structure, offering outstanding results: it absorbs 50% more compared to other household paper and, thanks to its exceptional resistance, it can be reused up to 10 times, compared to 1 or 2 of competing products.
Lucart is a company made up of people who choose to use innovative and sustainable processes in development, transformation and manufacturing of paper products, collaborating responsibly for the future of their business and of the planet.
www.lucartgroup.com
SanoRice is an innovative, reliable and 100% private label manufacturer of cakes & snacks based on a popping process. Market leadership is maintained by offering the largest product range and achieving economies of scale while adhering to the highest international food quality and safety standards.
SanoRice is the largest private label producer of rice, corn and multi-grain and vegetable cakes in Europe, and we aim to be the market leader of cake producers in the world. SanoRice counts actually with 3 factories: SanoRice Netherlands (Veenendaal), SanoRice Belgium (Zottegem) and SanoRice Italia (Borgo Vercelli). In 2022 they expect another factory, SanoRice Poland (Nowa Sol) to be operational.
With more than 25 years of experience, they export to more than 100 business partners around the world in more than 40 countries. Their main markets are Germany, UK, France, Italy, Scandinavia and the Benelux. But from Europe to the Middle East, New Zealand or the USA, their products can be found all over the world.
They work directly with retailers, A-brands and distributors and count among their customers the top 3 retailers in various European countries and the top 10 global A-brands. Partnership is key to build up mutually beneficial relationships. This can be Their rice, corn and multigrain and vegetable cakes are made from authentic and pure ingredients. WSanoRice has more than 450 recipes available in plain, coated or flavored cakes and a special range dedicated to baby food. Their cakes are suitable for all ages and any moment of the day: sweet, savory, big, small, round, square, as a healthy snack or as part of a balanced breakfast… and always with a crunchy bite.
SanoRice has a dedicated team of Product Developers for all factories. Their strength is working together with customers to build their brand. SanoRice has the highest standards for food safety and hygiene. Some of our claims are organic, gluten free, Fair Trade, UTZ certified, kosher or halal. As an innovative and future-oriented company they feel the need to contribute to a better world by making high-quality products. In line with their sustainability policy their supply chain is: sustainable for people, sustainable for the environment and sustainable for local economies.
www.sanorice.com
For more information privatelabel@sanorice.com
A Flexible And Reliable Partner for Frozen and Chilled Italian Pizza
Valpizza is one of the major Italian pizza producers. Historically specializing in frozen pizza production for retail and food service, Valpizza recently invested in chilled technologies, confirming its own reliability, as an integrated partner able to cover all customers needs in the pizza segment, from frozen to deli.
Located nearby Bologna, in the beautiful Valsamoggia Valley, Valpizza was founded in 1992 with the dream to bring the authentic artisanal Italian pizza into customers’ houses all around the world. In its 2 manufacturing plants, Valpizza applies the best available manufacturing technologies to replicate the traditional and artisanal Italian pizza-making art in large scale. The result is the best product suited to your needs: an artisanal pizza able to respect the standard agreed and bring your customer to Italy within a bite.
Production pillars:
• Raw Materials: Valpizza carefully selects natural raw materials available, privileging Italian ones and strictly controlling every phase. Supply chain is crucial in Valpizza vision: that’s why we use 100% certified Italian grains and 100% Italian tomato sauce.
• Process: traditional process from dough balls, with a long natural leavening, that enhance the authentic
Italian aromatic profile and as a result a more digestible and light pizza.
Valpizza hand stretches all the pizzas, respecting the real Italian look and feel.
The wood-fired and stone oven baking bring the final touch to the products, to make them look and taste exactly as a pizza in Italy.
• Maximum flexibility in shapes:
round, oval, squared and rectangular from 15 to 45cm.
• The perfect mix between automation and hand topping
allows Valpizza to be flexible and able to manufacture unlimited recipes. Valpizza’s internal Private Label and R&D divisions are skilled in managing the whole process and supporting you step by step, customizing the offer in accordance to all retailers needs.
Valpizza’s experience in food service as well as in deli areas helps the company in translating new trends into retail, customizing products in line with all goals and market expectations.
Valpizza is present in 4 continents and 48 Countries from US to Japan.
Company Certifications: IFS, BRC, FDA, Organic NOP, Kosher, Halal
Contact: privatelabel@valpizza.it
100% italian tomato
100% italian grains
The V-Label Brand: The Ally of Private Labels!
Dozens of distribution chains and hundreds of private label product manufacturers in Europe and elsewhere have already chosen the V-Label brand to identify products suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
The V-Label brand’s unique characteristics make it the perfect ally and partner for private label products, retailers and large-scale distributors.
First of all, the V-Label brand is registered in over 70 countries around the world and is distributed worldwide, allowing international distributors and producers to use a single, distinct vegetarian and vegan label independent of where their products are manufactured or distributed.
Despite its widespread use, the V-Label brand continues to maintain the same criteria and testing methods for product designation, and the uniform nature of this process allows for it to be implemented throughout the world without any variation.
The V-Label brand guidelines were established by major European Vegetarian and Vegan Associations in order to provide assurance and guarantee safety for customers and consumers. Checks are performed with the utmost care to ensure quality and compliance with the standards of the V-Label brand, which is synonymous with reliability and safety for the end customer. For this reason, self-declarations are not accepted: individual ingredients and manufacturing procedures are inspected in order to be able to stand behind the vegetarian or vegan designation appearing on the labels of the products bearing the brand.
And, while the inspections are indeed strict in order to ensure compliance with quality standards, our product assistance is tailored to the customer. We know how complex distribution can be and thus our goal is to provide the utmost flexibility to better assist manufacturers and distributors, starting from being on the ground locally to break down language barriers and issues arising from working across different time zones.
We always have expert personnel capable of handling all the technical aspects of product verification and facilitating the necessary procedures.
To make it easier for consumers purchasing the products, the V-Label brand comes in three different categories: vegetarian, vegan and raw vegan. This allows distributors and manufacturers to use the same brand to promote different qualities of the products being offered to the public. What began back in the 1970s as an institutional symbol of the Italian
Vegetarian Association has grown to become the most recognized vegetarian and vegan symbol in the world: the history of the brand is itself an assurance of excellence in the vegetarian and vegan industry.
Finding a sure way to showcase products and be selected by consumers is a must nowadays. What really makes the difference is what feature is chosen to promote: quality, sensitivity towards sustainability issues, safety, and transparency are among the most important.
That’s why today we are the first choice of thousands of customers: this is what the V-Label conveys every day.
www.vlabel.org segreteria@vlabel.it
BOSTON | PHOENIX | SAN DIEGO | CHINA | UK
Rethinking Packaging Design Closures to Offer a Purpose Driven, Reusable Solution
SGK Anthem, Vrijdag Premium Printing, Generous Minds, Neurensics, Kurz, Merck and Haval have joined forces under the name ‘Packadore Collective’ to design and implement both desirable and sustainable packaging solutions. Their ‘Cap Off’ design innovation offers a purpose driven and reusable solution for packaging closures.
Packaging design has two main objectives; to protect the product contents through each step of the supply chain and to inform the consumer of the product benefits or intended use. Countless packaging formats include components that are either not required to fulfil these objectives or their role is limited to a singular and single use function.
Cross-category, many glass jars and bottles are sealed with a metal closure with a plastic liner to create a tight seal. Often these components are not able to be recycled due to the multi-layered materials used or indeed is too costly a process in terms of logistics and cleaning.
Home cleaning trigger spray bottles, jam jars and ketchup bottles all use closures only required for the time it takes to use the product inside. Many such products use the same or very similar closures across multiple different brands. When individual brand packaging components are shared in this way there’s an opportunity to design a communal solution — one that is both sustainable and desirable. ‘Cap Off’ is a conceptual design innovation for packaging closures with a clear purpose — for purpose driven use and reuse.
The concept envisages that all relevant brand packaging in store and online is sold with a simple top seal and that reusable caps are sold separately for use and reuse across multiple different types of products. This solution helps preserve the value of the packaging lids for far longer, helps reduce waste and cost, plus increases the recyclability of the core packaging.
Additional functionality can be built into the design of the reusable caps such as for jam jar spoons or pouring spouts for juice.
About Packadore Collective:
Packadore Collective work collaboratively to design and implement both desirable and sustainable packaging solutions to help brands create real impact, now and for the future.
www.packadore.com
Uzbekistan Grocery Chain Makro Marks 10-Year Anniversary with 10 New Stores
The largest supermarket chain in Uzbekistan, Makro, just got bigger in December. The company opened 10 new stores on Friday, 11 December 2020 to celebrate their 10-year anniversary. The popular food retailer now includes 86 locations, with additional stores openings to came before year-end. needs of the consumer. Today Nuova Terra is close to the consumer but also to the planet and to the theme of sustainability: the new packaging is 100% eco-sustainable with a totally recyclable paper wrapping.
The ribbon-cutting at the new stores, scattered across the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, marked an important milestone for a company that exemplifies the rapid growth of Uzbekistan’s retail market in recent years.
“We are proud to be pioneering modern food retail in Uzbekistan, the largest nation in Central Asia,” said Makro Chief Executive Officer Roman Sayfulin. “Every day Makro opens its doors to customers who are enjoying a modern retail experience for the first time. Our mission is to create a supermarket for Uzbeks of all walks of life, and win their loyalty through a combination of variety, quality, and affordability.”
Sayfulin explained that consumer tastes are evolving and while the chain is expanding rapidly, particularly through the roll-out of new convenience store formats, the company can barely keep up with demand. Makro’s store network now extends far beyond Tashkent and earlier this year the company launched its e-commerce platform, adapting to the new market reality brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sayfulin quipped, “Our company is just 10 years old. It is not even a teenager yet. We still have a lot to learn, but like any ten year old, our potential is limitless.” Uzbekistan, with a population of 34 million, is the most populous country in Central Asia and the third most populous country in the former Soviet Union. The Uzbek consumer market is growing rapidly, on the back of a growing population, rising incomes, and urbanization. The World Bank forecasts that Uzbekistan will be only one of two countries in the entire Europe & Central Asia region to deliver positive GDP growth in 2020, with forecast growth of between 0.4% and 0.8%. Asked what the next 10 years may bring, Sayfulin quipped, “Our company is just 10 years old. It is not even a teenager yet. We still have a lot to learn, but like any ten year
old, our potential is limitless.” Makro, the brand name of Darvoza Savdo LLC, is a leading Uzbek food retailer. Today Makro operates 86 stores (up from 54 as of 1 January 2020) in the capital city of Tashkent and 23 other cities and towns across the country. Store formats include hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores. The company, which employs 3,800 staff, has achieved ISO 9001 certification for quality management systems and ISO 22000 HACCP certification for Makro’s distribution center is pending.
Venchi Fine Italian Chocolates Opens Second Boutique in New York City
New Chocogelateria Opens With Selection Of Authentic Italian Coffees, Hot Chocolate, And Crepes Featuring Venchi’s Rich And Incredible Suprema Chocolate
Venchi Fine Italian Chocolates has opened its newest standalone boutique in New York City at 1796 Broadway at Columbus Circle. For those who want an authentic taste of Italy and the opportunity to indulge in the warming comforts of coffee and chocolate, the Chocogelateria features a selection of authentic Italian coffees, hot chocolate, and crepes made with Venchi’s rich and wonderful Suprema chocolate — literally dispensed on order from a fountain of fresh flowing Suprema!
For those who have never visited a Venchi boutique, the iconic colorful Gelato cones and scent of chocolate create a magical atmosphere where you can immerse yourself in a true Italian taste experience! Between the chocolate fountains, Gelato, and pralines, guests will quickly discover their favorite sweet treat or find the perfect gift for a loved one, because chocolate is always a good idea! Visitors are always encouraged to ask about the ingredients or history of Venchi and we welcome the opportunity for you to sample everything!
The new Chocogelateria also features Venchi’s iconic Gelato made fresh daily in store, with exclusive natural ingredients imported from Italy including Piedmont Hazelnut, Green Pistachio from Bronte, Sorrento Lemon, etc. The boutique is offering Veganuary Gelatos for January in the following flavors: Azteco (chocolate), Mango, Mango Passion, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Lemon. The chocolate maker’s wide variety of artisan confections available for sale include the iconic Chocoviar, Truffles, Gianduiotti, Cremini, Bars, and Suprema spreads. All Venchi products are natural with no coloring agents, preservatives, or Palm oils. Venchi chocolates contain noble fats such as olive oil and cocoa butter; are all gluten-free; and some are vegan friendly as well.
With 140 years of expertise in chocolate making, Venchi's history dates back to 1878 when Silviano Venchi, a 20-year-old from Turin who loved chocolate spent his life savings on two bronze cauldrons to experiment with chocolate. Today, Silviano Venchi's passion, meticulous care and courage to experiment remain.
The company is known for its imaginatively named chocolates: Chocaviar, Truffles, Gianduiotti, Cremini, bars, Suprema spread, and its famous authentic Italian Gelato.
Venchi is an internationally known brand with more than 350 chocolate recipes and 90 gelato flavors. It is sold in more than 70 countries and 135 shops in key cities worldwide including London, Hong Kong, Dubai, New York, Berlin, Shanghai, and Tokyo. One-pound tubs of the Gelato and select chocolate products are available for delivery via UberEATS, DoorDash, and PostMates within the local Manhattan area.
According to Mark Ellis, Head of Retail UK at Venchi, “Venchi is committed to a robust global expansion, particularly in the US. Our goal is to open 30 to 50 boutiques in the US over the next 5 to 7 years.
Venchi products are available at its boutiques, via Amazon, and its online store at
https://us.venchi.com
