Chipita Ukraine

From its establishment in 1973 until 1990 Chipita produced only extruded snacks (corn curls) and distributed its products only in the Greek market.
In 1991 Chipita started the production of long shelf-life croissants, initially for the Greek market and later through exports for foreign markets

In 1995 it started its international expansion establishing the first two factories in Bulgaria and Portugal (1996). In 1997 it established a croissants production factory in Cairo-Egypt, and in 1999 it bought two croissant manufacturing facilities in Romania and Poland. In 2001 it bought a factory which manufactured swiss rolls in St. Petersburg in Russia, in which it has in addition installed two croissant production lines.
Growth strategy
In 2001, realising that in most of the markets Chipita was active its market share was between 70% and 100%, it developed a new strategy for the decade 2001-2010, which is currently implementing.
This strategy by geographic region is the following:
Greece
The core business of the company is the production and distribution of flour-based snacks (croissants, bake rolls, bake bars, other dough products such as strudel, treccia etc) as well as salty snacks (potato chips, corn curls).
Salty snacks are considered domestic products and are only distributed locally in the Greek market due to lack of any international competitive advantage.
On the other hand, all flour-based products are considered as trans-national products and are produced, marketed and distributed in a large number of countries from Eastern Europe to the Middle East and Central America.
The company has also decided to divest itself of all activities that are not within its core business or do not involve trans-national products.
In Greece, management aims to develop the local market further through increase in sales of exiting products and through the introduction of new products. Concentration of the R&D department activities in the Lamia factory and distribution of the new products initially only in the Greek market.
The company’s target is to gradually introduce new products already successfully sold in the Greek market, to its factories abroad, with the aim of increasing the number of products sold in these markets.

By applying this strategy during the years 2001-2003, the production of corn curls in the factory of Bulgaria ceased and the equipment for this activity has been sold. The line for the production of sliced bread and buns has been sold, as well as the participations of the company in the Makedoniki Sfoliata, Emporiki Synthesi SA, Panem S.A. and Olympic S.A., thus accomplishing the re-orientation of the company’s participations.
It should be noted that, the exit from the above participations was profitable in all cases. 2003 was a year of particular significance for the commercial activities of the company, as preparations got under way for the creation of a new nationwide direct distribution network to medium and small shops (MSD). It consists of a sales force of about 300 which visit about 33,000 outlets, in which snack products are sold, on a weekly basis.