Sweet dreams Cukry Nyskie

SWEET DREAMS

Since its establishment, Cukry Nyskie of Poland has been renowned for its ever-expanding range of biscuits and wafers. Today, its products include creams, wafers, sponge cakes, crackers and biscuits. Piotr Sadowski reports.

“Our company and our staff put their hearts into all our activities, which combine a rich production tradition with modern technologies to create products that we can be truly proud of,” says Andrzej Obirek, commercial director at Cukry Nyskie. “The fine quality, variety and unique taste of our products have been appreciated by customers in Poland and other countries for many years.”

In addition, the excellent reputation and strong brand awareness amongst consumers, as well as the company’s approach to ethical business operations, are regularly recognised by the market. In 2014, Cukry Nyskie was awarded, for the fourth time, an Employer of the Year title in its region, as well as receiving a highly prestigious Silver Laurel of Competence and Skills from the Opole Commerce Chamber. “This has also coincided with very good business results both in terms of the level of sales and production volume over 2014 and 2015,” adds Mr Obirek.

Strong results and ongoing investments

As the company’s commercial director explains, Cukry Nyskie enjoys a very stable market position, and faces no problems with the distribution of its products. In 2015 the company is focusing on continuing to increase sales and output, whilst maintaining the same level of employment. “The bottleneck is within the area of packaging our products and for that reason we are investing in brand new and highly efficient rapid packing machinery,” says Mr Obirek. “We are also going to expand the range of packaging volumes for our new products: traditionally a lot of products are packaged in 2.5 and 3kg volumes; now we will increase the range of products in packaging of up to 1kg, offering 5 items in such volumes.”

By doing so, the company is directly responding to market demand. In the last quarter of 2014 it introduced Petit Beurre cocoa biscuits in 200g packaging; it also added gingerbread biscuits in 240g packaging. In addition, last year saw the re-branding of its sugar-free light biscuits, including the reduction of the packaging weight. “By the end of the second quarter 2015 we will be introducing two new products, but we will make formal announcements of what they are in due course,” confirms Mr Obirek. “These will be very innovative products which are not yet available at all on the Polish market and we expect that they will be very favourably received by consumers.”

A renowned producer

With nearly seven decades of operations on the Polish market under its belt, Cukry Nyskie is a brand that is immediately recognised by tens of thousands of loyal consumers. The company sees that as a real affirmation of its hard work over the years, but it does not rest on its laurels. Quite the opposite: promotion has also become an important activity, an example of which is the current countrywide radio marketing campaign. “We are also taking part in a number of trade fairs, both local, national and international ones,” says the commercial director. “In 2014, as part of a consortium of Polish exhibitors, we took part in a major trade fair in Paris, whilst in 2015 we will be exhibiting at our own stand in Copenhagen and in 2016 in Cologne.”

Promotion is also one of the ways in which the company is able to diversify its distribution channels and increase its export share. In Poland, Cukry Nyskie has so far been selling around 60 per cent of its products in the traditional retail market and 40 per cent in the modern channel. However, the latter is now increasing its overall market share and the company is present in all modern European and Polish retail networks operating in Poland, such as Kaufland, Tesco, Eurocash, Żabka and others. It is also important to point out that the level of exports in terms of overall sales is also on the rise. The company distributes its products in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Czech Republic – and has been doing so for many years now – and since October 2014 it has also been exporting to the US. In addition, it is currently in talks with potential distributors in Canada and Kazakhstan, which, if successful, will pave the way for Cukry Nyskie to distribute its excellent products to these two new markets.

Strong prospects

Looking ahead, Cukry Nyskie is focusing primarily on organic growth. Working with global suppliers of sugar, flour, fats, cocoa and other raw materials, the company ensures that it has a stable base of raw materials.

Mr Obirek concludes: “We are not closing the doors on other forms of growth, such as acquisitions, but first and foremost the focus is on boosting our output capacity, ensuring we offer a good mix of traditional as well as brand new products. Diversifying our sales markets and reaching new clients are also going to be an important concern for us.” n