Konspol Group
Passion for food
Konspol Group was founded in 1982 and today it is a leading chicken producer, operating the most technologically advanced chicken processing plant in Poland
The group is comprised of four vertically integrated companies that follow the food chain – feed plant and chicken farms, slaughterhouse, production plant and distribution operation. Pasz Konspol begins the process with a fully computerised feed production plant that has the potential to produce 16 tons of feed per hour. It also has 88 poultry houses with an area of 130,000 m2, where the chickens are produced on a diet of unmodified soya beans and maize, without bonemeat meal, animal fat, antibiotics or growth promoters. These are free-range chickens.
The next division is Konspol Bis, located in Wielkopolska, and this is the slaughter and cutting plant with a production capacity of 12,000 pieces per hour of chickens up to a weight of 3.5 kg. Konspol Bis is also a processing plant – there are four modern lines where ready-to-eat convenience products are manufactured. This plant features state-of-the-art air-cooling technology to give it a competitive advantage in the market, and furthermore, Konspol Bis is about to commence several significant investments including the construction of another slaughterhouse and two additional production lines for convenience products.
Next in the chain is Konspol Holding. This is a chicken-processing plant, and was the first plant in Poland to introduce unique technology to produce 100 per cent chicken meat products. Today it has the potential to manufacture 6000 tons of products per month, and it produces traditional hams and sausages, pates, ready meals, barbecue products and thin sausages as well as convenience products, among them innovative items such as gyoza. Konspol has recently implemented a pasteurisation technology, which allows it to lengthen the shelf life of its products without adding any chemicals.
All of Konspol’s plants are certified GMO free, and are highly integrated, meaning the company is able to control the whole production process at each stage from raw material up to the final product. The total production potential of Konspol Group is 15,000 tons per month and this is still growing.
Finally, the fourth part of the company is Trans Konspol, a fleet of temperaturecontrolled trucks, which assure logistics and delivery support to all of the Group’s operations.
While Poland may be its core home market, such is the status of Konspol that it also ranks as a leader in Europe, and as Magdalena Pazgan-Wacławek, Chairwoman explained, the company bases its success on 35 years of experience of developing and improving its products, services and unique technologies. “We only use carefully chosen Polish raw materials, seasonings and breadcrumbs in our manufacturing process, thus offering products of world-leading quality,” she noted.
Always adhering to this quality driven philosophy, in total Konspol offers over 200 diversified products, including gluten-free products, light products, NATURA products free from preservatives, and an assortment of convenience foods. “We use original, delicious recipes, which make it possible for us to manufacture high quality products that meet our customers’ expectations. We are also able to respond to ever-changing consumers’ behaviour and new market trends such as meat snacks, which are the new ‘it’ food,” continued Magdalena. “We have products for modern women, for children, for people seeking novelties and innovative products. Good taste and heath are our passion and this is also our motto. We have always paid a lot of attention to what kind of ingredients and raw material we use in the production process and what food we offer to our clients: we were the first company to introduce gluten-free products onto the Polish market as well as NATURA products with no ‘E’ added – products that we call ‘clean label’.”
The NATURA range is free from preservatives, gluten and lactose, and boasts a high meat content – recently Konspol launched a new innovative line of products for children under the brand Zarłaki’ – NATURA, which included frankfurters made from 100 per cent chicken, and a first in the market with NATURA Chicken Nuggets. These featured specially designed packaging driven by consumers’ demand, which makes the products attractive and highly visible on the shelves.
Given the extremely wide range of products on offer from Konspol, the Group is able to target many different customers and distributes products through a variety of channels. Among these are wholesalers, retailers, super and hypermarket chains, discount chains and the HoReCa sector. In order to deliver a superlative service to such a wide variety of client requirements, the organisation places a high regard on its staff, given that they are the human face of its operation. “We are constantly making investments in our employees – through continuous on-the-job training as well as attendance at external training courses and conferences,” Magdalena confirmed. “These investments are also always underway in the machine park, in order to keep up with customers’ demands and address their upcoming requirements. The constant improvement of current products and the launch of new ones is what distinguishes us as innovation leaders in Poland.”
Magdalena and the Group as a whole believe that these sorts of continuous improvement programmes are essential in order to compete in what is a very difficult, competitive and challenging market. “Trends in the FMCG market are fast moving, and we have to keep up,” she said. “Considering our 35 years of market experience we can see many opportunities for us, we are working on a number of them and hope that customers will soon have an opportunity to experience them on the market first hand.
“Our aim is to maintain a high quality of products and develop new products with exceptional taste that consider our customers’ demands and follow the trend that ‘food is the new fashion’. We would also like to intensify our activity in foreign markets as the demand for high quality and healthy products is a global trend,” she concluded.