Increase in demand for pasta during crisis

2009-08-13



The sales of Makarony Polskie, the well-known producer of pasta and ready-to-eat meals, increased by 27% between January and July 2009. The company’s sales revenues came to PLN 64.9m (€15.5m); PLN 49m (€11.7m) of this was generated by pasta, which boosted sales by 62%. However, sales of ready-to-eat meals and preserves were worth PLN 15.9m (€3.8m), reflecting a 24% year-on-year reduction.
The growth in pasta sales reflects the company’s investments. In 2008 the producer spent PLN 17.6m (€4.2m) on two new production lines, which significantly increased production capacity. As a result, in the first seven months of 2009 the company manufactured 22.3m kilograms of pasta, whereas during the equivalent period of last year the figure was 11.8m kilograms. The management claims that the weaker results with regard to ready-to-eat meals reflected growing competition on the market.
Makarony Polskie predicts record-breaking results for 2009. The improvement in sales is a result of increases in demand for pasta and reductions in the costs of raw materials. Furthermore, the company specialises in the production of private label goods for which demand has increased during the crisis.