The natural upgrade Agrana

AGRANA THE NATURAL UPGRADE

Agrana is the leading sugar manufacturer in central and eastern Europe. Joseph Altham reports on the company’s activities in Romania, where Agrana produces the country’s best-known brands of sugar and has recently launched a new product. WWW.AGRANA.RO

Agrana is a powerful player in the food sector. The Austrian headquartered company employs around 8000 people, and sugar production is only one of its activities. It also makes bioethanol and starch and is a highly successful manufacturer of fruit preparations for ice cream and yoghurt, and fruit concentrate. The sugar that Agrana makes is sold directly to consumers and is also supplied to manufacturers of soft drinks and confectionery.

In the European Union, Agrana has a total of nine sugar production plants, three of which are located in Romania. Agrana’s plant in Buzau refines around 1000 tonnes of raw sugar per day. Agrana has another sugar refinery in Roman, in the northeast of the country. Both plants process raw cane sugar that is sourced from outside Europe and transported to Romania by sea. In addition, the site at Roman refines sugar beet – more than 4000 tonnes per day. This sugar beet is sourced from thousands of local farmers in eastern Romania. According to the CEO of Agrana Romania, Gabriela Petrea, in Romania, sugar is the most important business area for the company. “The production and marketing of sugar continue to be our main activity, and Agrana Romania has been the market leader in this sector for almost a decade.”

Brands

Agrana Romania produces sugar both for industrial customers and for individual consumers. “We have all the major industrial clients in our portfolio,” stated Mrs Petrea. “It is an honour for us to have these valuable relationships, which oblige us to provide the best products and services at all times.” In the consumer market, Agrana is the company behind Romania’s most popular brands of sugar, Margaritar and Coronita. Margaritar, a premium product, is sold in a wide range of formats, including cubes, sugar crystals, sachets and sticks, while Coronita is addressing the average end-consumer, for sweetening and preserving foods. These brands can be found in shops in small towns and villages throughout Romania.

However, as the Romanian economy develops, the retail sector is changing. “Little by little, modern retail firms are replacing traditional retail, moving closer to where the customer lives and expanding their convenience outlets.”

As Mrs Petrea explained, Agrana Romania’s product portfolio compares with what is on offer anywhere else in the European Union. At the same time, the recession has set limits to what is realistically achievable in Romania right now. “There is still some way

to go before a complete alignment of products. The trend in this direction was held back a bit by the effect of the economic crisis, which reduced the market’s purchasing power.” The uncertainty has not prevented Agrana from bringing out an attractively packaged new product under the Margaritar brand. As the name suggests, Margaritar Mauritius is made from sugar cane grown in Mauritius. It is a semi-refined brown sugar, adding to its nutritional value. “This product is targeted towards people who are looking for a high quality ingredient to add to drinks and is offered in all the modern formats: a 0.5 kg carton and a Tetra Pak system, as well as sachets and sticks.”

Improving agricultural techniques

Mrs Petrea does not hide the fact that the Romanian economy is experiencing difficulties. What counts is that Agrana Romania has managed to stay afloat in spite of these problems. “Agrana has kept the production units running at Roman and Buzau, despite the very competitive market.” The Agrana factory in Roman gets its sugar beet by drawing up contracts with farmers in eastern Romania, and the company has put a lot of effort into boosting its beet supplies. Agrana Romania

works in close cooperation with the farmers, offering them expert advice on ways to improve the condition of the soil and to achieve higher crop yields. “Agrana has invested large amounts of money in providing information and agricultural equipment to farmers. In this way, they have been persuaded to take part in supplying our beet crop and throughout northeastern Romania better farming methods have become more widely understood. In the end, we succeeded in securing contracts for over 55 per cent of Romania’s beet acreage.” A quality service

Romania suffered a drought in 2012 but Agrana’s forward planning protected the company from the impact. “Our policy proved to be the right one and we were able to achieve our required quota production and even to obtain a surplus.” Agrana Romania has also been making improvements to its production sites. “We have invested in energy-saving measures at the Roman and Buzau production units, and new packaging lines are about to be installed and put into operation in Buzau.” Logistics have also been made more efficient both in Buzau and at the Agrana Romania warehouse in Bucharest. Yet in the final analysis, as Mrs Petrea recognises, the best measure of Agrana Romania’s success is customer satisfaction. “Our strategy,” she stated, “is to grow by improving the standard of our products and services, adapting to the needs of our customers and providing high-quality products for all of our different markets.” n