By onboarding Europastry, Chef Middle East plans to elevate its bakery range.
Chef Middle East proudly offers a key hand solution to foodservice customers, and by onboarding Europastry it plans to elevate the overall bakery range and breakfast solution with a more diverse and innovative offering.
Europastry was founded in Spain by Pere Gallés, an artisan baker who invented the pre-baked bread process in 1987. Today, the brand run by his son Jordi Gallés, is a leader in the frozen bakery dough sector worldwide. For 35 years, the company has been producing bakery goods guided by the tradition of artisan master bakers, using innovation to develop the best quality products. Europastry products and expertise allows a distribution in more than 80 countries worldwide through 22 factories and 31 regional sales offices. The company’s culture is based on traditions and enhanced by innovation to make people’s lives more convenient.
Dovile Vilkiene, general manager at Europastry MEA, said: “Chef Middle East is a respected and well-known distributor of quality brands in the region with the determination to grow the bakery category. The team is innovative, creative and eager to succeed while remaining humble. As we see ourselves multi-local, our growth has a global reach with a focus on local bonds with communities and partners. Therefore, we are pleased to develop and strengthen our relationship with historical and respected actors of the market, such as Chef Middle East. The premium quality of Europastry product lines along the position of the brand as a trend leader will allow the market to have access to the best products at a competitive cost.”
Pooja Bhatt, pastry and bakery category manager at Chef Middle East commented: “Europastry’s range will uplift the overall proposition in the UAE and Oman markets and will make our bakery offering stronger. We are delighted to have now a complete range of frozen bakery goods from viennoiseries to breads, snacks and sweet treats with a solid range of donuts. All the channels across Chef Middle East’s business will be catered to the large range proposed by the brand. It was crucial for us to have a high caliber complete frozen bakery offering aligned with the positioning of our pastry and bakery category that is recognised amongst professionals as high quality.“We forecast great opportunities for the range, especially the viennoiseries. Europastry has two lines called Caprice and Excellence with a high percentage of butter; both being excellent propositions to our customers.
“We are also excited to launch the Middle Eastern range of zaatar croissant that was recently developed, the upcoming mini danishes, the cheese croissant and few other surprises such as the goat cheese and spinach croissant.”
An evolving industry
Today, the foodservice industry is continuously adapting and evolving to meet consumers’ rapidly changing needs. Europastry’s DNA drives to constantly research and develop new products. In its four R&D centres, the team works on more than 1,000 projects, from which an average of 400 products are launched each year, in addition to tailor-made solutions and products produced for key customers. The high demand in the Middle East and Asia regions led to have dedicated full manufacturing units for Halal certified products, that are compliant with the strictest Halal requirements across the globe.
Chef Middle East says that as consumers become more nutrition-friendly, they prefer fat-free and sugar-free products, and are generally inclined towards maintaining robust health. Therefore, a product that is tagged as ‘eco-friendly’, with no additives and preservatives, has more of a consumer connection and is likely to accrue lucrative sales. The company also wants to help the industry in its challenge to come up with healthy products that provide ample nutrients and, at the same time, do not take away from the aesthetics of the brand.
A rise in time-convenient products
The expectation is that time-convenient products, such as sourdough artisanal bread, will continue growing, as will small bites and attractive Instagrammable foods.
Vilkiene added: “As we are true to our origins, which are in the traditional bakery, we are also non-conformist and innovative. We use top-quality raw ingredients and seek to stay ahead of new trends that best suit the needs of each customer. In addition, we are highly committed to sustainability, the change towards a cleaner and more sustainable bakery industry. Since 2018, we reduced our carbon footprint by more than 60 percent and our goal for 2021 is to reduce it by a further 36 percent. This goal is not limited only to our manufacturing, but starts at the beginning of the chain.
“We are committed to use responsible wheat by implementation of good practices with local farmers, the use of certified seeds, reduced use of fertilisers, crop rotation and field-to-table traceability. We have created the ‘Responsible Wheat’ seal. In fact, today, 5,300 hectares are dedicated to this crop, and we are committed to expand this area to 20,000 hectares by 2025.”
Chef Middle East has emphasised the great opportunities foreseen from this new partnership and is looking forward to bringing to the market a high quality bakery solution, expanding its product portfolio and always preserving excellence in supplying premium products to the foodservice professionals in the region.
