Peklimar – A renowned and trusted brand Peklimar

PEKLIMAR – A RENOWNED AND TRUSTED BRAND

PEKLIMAR, operating on the Polish market since 1990, specialises in the production of high quality smoked meats, sausages, frankfurters, cold meats and other meat products. Aware of the ever-changing markets and responding to consumers’ expectations, the company develops and diversifies its product offer, as well as optimising all of its internal process, from manufacturing to efficient business and human resources management. Piotr Sadowski reports.

The high quality products offered by PEKLIMAR have, over the years, gained the company a strong base of loyal customers, as well as a wide range of market and consumer awards, including the all-important Consumer Quality Sign ‘Q’ awards.

“Today we are a business with a strong market position but we do not sit idle, knowing how dynamically-changing the market is,” says Bogusław Strześniewski, president of the board at PEKLIMAR. “We are therefore focusing on optimising our costs, materials and developing our human resources, which required certain changes to be made to the organisational structures. In addition, we are implementing modern management methodologies, including management through projects, goals and strategic results. All of this allows us to be much bolder in terms of longer term, threeto five-year planning.”

Diversifying the product offer

This new approach to development strategy is already producing good market results: as consumer needs and expectations, as well as the market, are dynamically changing, PEKLIMAR is able to respond to the new patterns of demand.

“What is particularly visible in our market sector is how strongly the diversification and introduction of new products is being communicated by companies,” points out Mr Strześniewski. “PEKLIMAR has therefore successfully introduced new, interesting products and brands, including a range of delicatessen products tailored for the type of cooking done to a greater extent by women. This is, of course, alongside the traditional products that have been available for many years. Above all, we are continuously working on our marketing message, to ensure it is strong and has resonance with our clients and consumers.”

The average monthly production at PEKLIMAR is between 800–850 tonnes of ready products, equal to, on average, PLN 10–11 million in sales. Mr Strześniewski points out that currently the market is experiencing a shortage of pork as a raw ingredient, which means that the prices charged to the consumers have risen. Despite this, PEKLIMAR

is not experiencing a fall in its sales of products. On the contrary, thanks to the overall process optimisation, focus on high quality and strong marketing message, the company has recorded a slight increase in sales over the last few months.

“On behalf of PEKLIMAR, I would like to specifically mention how important our cooperation with our pork suppliers is,” says Mr Strześniewski. “While on the one hand we have a small shortage in the supply of pork, on the other hand our suppliers are delivering pork of the most outstanding quality. It is a very satisfying trend as it means that Polish pork is becoming a superior product, a fact being increasingly acknowledged on foreign markets.”

In delivering high quality products PEKLIMAR also relies on successful cooperation with a host of other suppliers, with whom the company has often been working from the very outset of its operations in the 1990s.

“We have really good rapport and relationships with our supply chain partners,” points out Mr Strześniewski. “It is vital to have such good cooperation as it clearly benefits both parties.”

Ongoing development

In order to deliver outstanding quality products, PEKLIMAR invests in continuous modernisation of its production facilities, introducing new lines essential for modern production. Recently, this has included a PLN 1 million line for meat pickling, as well as lines used for packaging ready products. In addition, as logistics involve distribution carried out using its own transportation, PEKLIMAR has been investing in replacing its fleet of delivery vehicles.

As Mr Strześniewski explains, the company is currently operating at 100 per cent of its output capacity. Although decisions on further expansion of the premises or a potential move to a new location, with a new manufacturing hall and company headquarters, have not yet been taken, the president of the board clearly points out that in order to further increase production and sales, such decisions will need to be taken.

“In the very near future we will modernise our despatch department,” says Mr Strześniewski. “We are continuously gaining new customers, who are widely dispersed, so the despatch logistics need to be improved, in order to be more efficient.”

As previously explained, the market in which PEKLIMAR operates is undergoing dynamic changes, including individual buyers now consolidating their strengths in buyer groups, who are able to influence the market conditions more effectively than before.

PEKLIMAR has very good business partnerships with such groups, as it does with leading middle-sized retail networks and similar retail chains, who are important counterparts in the company’s distribution channel. PEKLIMAR operates mostly within a 170-kilometre radius around the company’s location and supplies Warsaw, Łódź, Płock, Sielsk and Ciechanów, but also ventures further into the Kujawy Region. It is also very strong amongst consumers in the Tri-City area of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia and is intensively expanding to the Greater Poland region.

“The growth of exports is a task for the future and we plan to focus first and foremost on organic growth of the company, in order to further establish our position in the niche market of our operations,” concludes Mr Strześniewski. n