They wish to be everyone’s bakery

Judit Kázmér: – Less grain harvested due to the drought, rising production costs, war in Ukraine – have these factors changed buying habits in Zalaco bakeries?

László Berta: – Consumers might purchase more of the cheaper products for a while, but they won’t stop buying baked goods. Zalaco’s sales revenue had been HUF 560m in 2000 and it was HUF 12.5bn in 2021. We are stronger and we have a better strategy now. For more than a decade, we have also been supplying the biggest retail chains. In retail our biggest competitor has a different buyer base. We serve a large number of customers, because we are everyone’s bakery and wish to stay things this way. Zalaco likes to learn, so we regularly go abroad to learn about the latest trends. In part this is the reason why we were among the first to start manufacturing frozen baked goods. Today these realise half of our sales turnover and we export them to four countries.

„We do what we are the best at…”
László Berta, owner-CEO

JK: – How did this success story start? It wasn’t by accident that Zalaco won so many awards, for instance Company of the Year in Zala County in 2012, Superbrands in 2021 and 2022, and you were named Entrepreneur of the Year by the National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (VOSZ) in 2014.

LB: – It is a key element of our success that we are a family business, as this gives us freedom in planning and decisions can be made faster. We combine traditions and modernity very well. I had taken over Zalaco in 2001 and in the last 20 years we implemented lots of development projects. For instance our last one was building a new production line in one of our factories, from a budget of HUF 3bn. We have also built a 1.1 Megawatt solar energy plant recently, close to Zalaegerszeg.

„In the past more than 20 years, we implemented significant developments at our plants.” Zalaco’s frozen food production plant in Ságod

JK: – I know that you are keen on using natural ingredients and your own recipes. How can you work with these in large-scale baked good production?

LB: – We make high quality, tasty baked goods because we only use premium ingredients. Zalaco works with fresh milk, eggs and boiled potatoes – nobody else does it. Our dairy factory in Győrvár was built to have enough fresh milk for baking, from a reliable source. Zalaco’s sourdough bread is made using the natural leavening method.

„Our products taste homemade…”

JK: – How did the COVID pandemic affect Zalaco? Can you make plans in the current market conditions?

LB: – 2021 was an excellent year for us: sales in retail jumped 18%, sales revenue from frozen products soared 38% and our wholesale performance improved by 3%. Zalaco wants to be the biggest baking enterprise, so plans include expanding our shop network. We also intend to open specialist shops abroad in the medium term. In 1-2 years’ time we will open a model farm in Zalavár, with a shop and an education centre.

JK: – Your plans in Zalavár indicate that Zalaco cares about the community. Every year you donate tonnes of food to poor people, kindergartens, municipalities, etc. via the Red Cross. Why is charity work important for Zalaco?

LB: – This is completely normal for us, we can afford it so we do it. Besides our charity work, we regularly train 8-10 university students, we educate vocational school students in three places, and for 10 years now we have been employing 40-50 people with disabilities. (x)