Professional catering at your service

Bulgaria-based Liberty Food Services offers a diversified portfolio of products and services that satisfy demanding customers not just in its native country but in several European countries. Mr Vincent Rombaut, company owner and Managing Director who founded the business in 1999, talks about its ambitious plans for future growth.

“WE started with one contract for a major manufacturer but soon became aware that to secure a growing business we needed to develop the Sofia market and open a small kitchen in the capital. At that time we started to participate in tenders for government contracts; soon we won several tenders for the hospital sector, which was the breaking point and the business really took off,” Mr Rombaut begins.

“As the Sofia market grew, we realised that we needed bigger premises. In 2010, we embarked on a major investment that resulted in opening the most technologically advanced production unit in the entire Balkans. The kitchen facility does not only provide meal services throughout Bulgaria but has the capacity to produce food products under private labels for export. As such, Liberty Food Services has become an international player selling products from Bulgarian soil.” Investing in growth

Mr Rombaut explains that the new production facility opened up more opportunities, as well as initiating requests from supermarkets, and the company started to diversify into ready-meal production.

Today, the company operates several production units. “Our main facility is in Sofia, with over €2 million invested in the unit. In Varna we have another production facility about half the size worth over

€600,000. As we strive for long-term customer relationships, we invest and install kitchen equipment in our clients’ bases,” he says. “As an approved importer of Electrolux Professional we make sure that every piece of kitchen equipment installed is of high quality and with a lot of production options. But we do not just install kitchens – in collaboration with Electrolux, we have also designed several kitchen for greenfield operations.”

In 2018 Liberty Food Services acquired a frozen food production facility and started to focus more on creating products for the export market using Bulgarian raw materials. “With the new unit we are able to store over 30 tonnes of frozen meals or frozen food items with good access to the EU markets. Actually, our food can be delivered within 48 hours to places like Berlin, with plenty of shelf life left even if delivered fresh. This allowed us to specialise in custom meals, which are hard to automate and expensive in northern Europe,” he affirms.

Firmly established

“We are a 100 per cent food company and that shows,” he continues. “I have solid background in the food industry and having worked in some Michelin star kitchens gives me the experience and knowledge to create very good food at great prices. Moreover, given my additional hospitality background, the company is able to provide customised services for each client. Today, in addition to the industrial and hospital meal services, our portfolio includes the production of ready-made meals, frozen or fresh, which has been a growing segment over the last few years.”

The foundation of the business continues to be the corporate clients, followed by governmental contracts and schools. “We have been reducing the amount of government contracts in our portfolio as payment delays are tremendous and sometimes hard to enforce and prices have been stagnant in this sector anyway,” Mr Rombaut points out. “In the ready meal business, we see opportunities for expansion in the export markets, capitalising on our ability to provide customised services and lower volumes compared to large food factories.

“We are an approved NATO supplier and participate in international tenders. I see growth potential in offshore contracts as we are extremely competitive and have a large staff base of over

500 employees,” he affirms, adding that the company is a good potential supplier for ‘compound’ catering services and offshore catering services. “Having worked nine years in the cruise industry I have extensive experience in making sure supplies are where they need to be.”

Recent developments

He confirms that growth has been tremendous in the last few years and the company is now starting to be choosey about its customers. Solid, reliable relationships are preferred. “As of 1 October, we start with a new client requiring over 2000 meals served daily. We have invested heavily in a local production site and we are able to provide meal services on a short notice of just 30 days; i.e. we are able to build a kitchen basically from scratch in 30 days.”

And the future? “We will continue to develop in the frozen sector. One of our goals is for our large facilities to be able to bake all bread on site in order to provide an even better customer service and experience,” says Mr Rombaut, confirming that the company is also looking at new markets. “We have been in contact with factories in Macedonia and Serbia and are exploring the opportunities there. In addition, we have also approached supermarkets in Belgium and the Netherlands to propose our custom (white label) frozen foods and ready meals.” Given its rapid development and expansion, Bulgariabased Liberty Food Services is indeed ready to firmly set foot in the new territories. n