(AUREA 2019 AWARD NOMINATION): Baby Food Factory - Production of food for children

Baby Food Factory opened in October 2018 in Dobanovci. The mission of the team behind this investment was to offer healthy, high quality food for children.

This is a greenfield investment. The factory, which features the most modern facilities, produces a full range of baby foods, consisting of dry grain meals, liquid grain meals, juices, purees in a glass packaging, but also in the new soft “pouch” packaging, under their own Nutrino brand.

The factory takes up 33,500 m2, of which 13,600 m2 are indoor facilities. The investment is worth EUR 34 million, which makes Baby Food Factory one of the biggest investments in Serbia, but also the largest local investment in 2018.

The factory is owned by Serbian investors and partners in this project, the family of the founder of Nelt and businessman Goran Vukovic, who has been successfully operating in the Russian market for years in the field of production of food for children. Over 25 years of experience in similar operations and the successful business model from Russia has been transferred to Serbia in order to offer world-standard production of baby food in the local and the regional markets.

From the very beginning, they’ve set high production standards for themselves at the factory, opting for a responsible approach when it comes to food quality and safety. In each part of the production process, they pay special attention to the healthiness of the products in line with international standards.

INNOVATION

In founding Baby Food Factory, the main mission was to provide babies and mothers with high quality, healthy baby food. A full range of baby food in produced at the factory in Dobanovci, such as dry grain meals, liquid grain meals, juices, purees in a glass packaging, but also in the new soft “pouch” packaging. All the products are packaged under the recognizable Nutrino brand for the EU market and the “Kada ja porastem” brand in Russia and the CIS.

As already said, the factory features the most modern facilities and equipment.

What makes the project innovative are the new standards in producing baby food that the company has brought to the local market, pertaining to the modern, highly efficient processing and technological equipment.

The entire production space, the laboratory and the logistics passageways of the factory comply with the standards of the so-called “clean room panels”. These standards entail a full absence of anything unclean, matching conditions that can be found in operating rooms and pharmaceutical facilities.

Keeping in mind that clean room panels are neither the standard nor the practice across the baby food production business, but a choice of the team behind Baby Food Factory, it’s clear that the care for a healthy growing up of children is deeply ingrained in the philosophy of baby food production which the company wants to establish in the local market.

The company took care of the standards back in the design phase, selecting suitable materials (full facility air conditioning management) and construction solutions when it comes to the production lines, the physical-chemical and microbiological laboratory and the control of the production process, from the basic ingredients, through the processing procedure, to the finished products. This kind of a production process guarantees the top quality and safety of the products.

The very products of Nutrino reflect the innovative approach through the introduction of new categories to the local baby food market (liquid grain meals and compotes), new combinations of flavors and packaging innovations.

Pouch packaging, sleeved glass jars, foils which protect products from light, dust and accidental opening, as well as the use of zippers for dry grain meals, which allows for multiple uses of the same product, are only some of the world trends in this field that Baby Food Factory offered to local and regional consumers first.

The said technology of production with high-capacity equipment, which exceeds the needs of the regional market, as well as a full portfolio of products in the field of baby food, gives the company a competitive advantage and positions it as a unique company in the Serbian market.

SOCIAL USEFULNESS

Considering that the main activity of Baby Food Factory is the production of food for such a sensitive consumer category as children, their social responsibility is primarily reflected in the implementation of the highest production standards, or order to secure the top quality of baby food.

From the very beginning, they’ve set high production standards for themselves at the factory, opting for a responsible approach when it comes to food quality and safety. In each part of the production process, they pay special attention to the healthiness of the products in line with international standards.

Baby Food Factory is very responsible when it comes to quality control. The ingredients used in the production comply with the strictest EU standards and are procured exclusively from certified suppliers.

The most advanced water filtering process is used in the production, the so-called reverse osmosis, which removes the smallest particles. This process produces high-quality drinking water, which can be used for medicinal or laboratory purposes. The factory also features a physical-chemical and microbiological laboratory with the most modern equipment. Strict control of the input, materials, production process control and finished product control are also carried out.

Also, preventive controls of each individual segment of the operations are carried out regularly in order to continuously find new solutions for the purpose of improving each part of the production program, in addition to constant supervision and maintenance of a high quality level.

In addition to the technology, which complies with the highest global standards, the company complies with the strictest requirements of regulations and standards. They comply with GMP (good manufacture practice) and GHP (good hygiene practice). Safety and high product quality are supported by the compliance with the ISO 9001:2015, FSSC 22000 and HACCP standards.

Furthermore, the company is environmentally aware. Baby Food Factory has completely eschewed the emission of harmful gases, and all waste waters are treated and are let into waterways fully filtered. This fully eliminates negative environmental impact.

In addition to being dedicated to children and parents, Baby Food Factory says that they are just as dedicated to raising the quality and creating a better environment for the whole community.

The very fact that Baby Food Factory is one of the biggest investments and the biggest investment in 2018 and that they employed 110 experts of various profiles in the first phase and that the number will reach 350 in the next few years speaks to the fact that the project is already contributing to the economic environment of the community the company operates in and the sale of Serbian products in the markets of the region, the EU and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

During the construction of the facility, the main contractor, Termoinzenjering d.o.o. hired 33 local subcontractors (construction, finishing, electrical and machine works). In their everyday production, they mostly use ingredients from local suppliers that meet the required quality standards.

With the planned continuation of investments in production capacities, which will also entail a continuous expansion of the range of products, a proportional increase in cooperation with local producers is expected, along with the announced creation of new jobs.

FINANCIAL POTENTIAL

Baby Food Factory is a greenfield investment of EUR 34 million, which makes it one of the biggest investments in Serbia in 2018 and the biggest local investment.

All the conditions necessary for the realization of the investment regarding the land, the infrastructure and the permits were provided by the investor. The realization of the investment project was helped by the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia and the Development Agency of Serbia through a contract on the allocation of incentives, which will be realized in the upcoming period. This will contribute to an increase in the overall exports from Serbia.

The daily production capacity is 50 tons of tasty and healthy baby food, which will be available in the local and the regional markets (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Croatia and Slovenia), but also in the markets of Southeast Europe and the CIS (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan).

A complementary program – dry grain meals and liquid milk gruels and purees – will be sold in Russia, which is especially important regarding the improvement of Serbia’s exports to that market.

Also, the plan is to continue investing in the production capacities, as only the first phase of the investment has been completed so far. Through new investments, the current range of products will be continuously expanded with new products, which opens new perspectives of development and a further growth of exports in Europe.

The modern equipment and the quality human resources open the possibility of cooperation of Baby Food Factory with other companies whose production is based on related product categories.
If Baby Food Factory is your investment of the year favorite, you can vote for it on Aurea's official website.

eKapija.com Beograd

Fabrika dečje hrane d.o.o.

Termoinženjering d.o.o. Beograd

Nelt Co d.o.o Beograd

Aurea 2019

Aurea

investment of the year award

Baby Food Factory

production of food for children

Nelt

Termoinženjering doo

Goran Vuković

Nutrino baby food brand

production of baby food

baby food

export of baby food