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“Here is UAB Maisto arsenalas,” said the director only after meeting us in the Kėdainiai district, at the factory. “We produce canned meat, sell it, and offer canned meat production services to farmers, hunters and ranchers.”
Introducing the company, the woman explains that another service has recently been launched: the production of gourmet pâtés has started.
The company, he says, was founded almost 5 years ago by three friends who were also hunters. It is true that, as they say, the first year was more focused on document management, and the activity only began in the second year, when the preserves began to be delivered to the stores of the Aibė retail chain.
According to S. Kaupienė, most of the people were very skeptical about the company’s products from the beginning, so entering the market was not easy.
“The company itself was founded in 2016, but started operations in 2017. At first we only worked with Aibe.
The difficulties to enter the market were related to production volumes, because we could not produce as much as other large companies, we are small, exclusive. And what does that mean? That price is automatically higher. And when you come to the big retail chains, they want low prices, but I can’t give them, our cost doesn’t even come out like that ”, he remembers from the beginning.
As the explanation explains, the stereotypes formed by the customers themselves have made starting the business more difficult.
“It just came to our attention then. In fact, this was the goal so that people would not be afraid to eat canned food, which is a really good product.
There is such a stereotype. And you used to think that what you have in those preserves seems to be everything that no longer works in any other place, “he says, but explains that they have already managed to change this opinion about their products.
“The further we go, the more we know each other.
Here we produce meat from cattle from local Lithuanian farms, where I see how they are raised.
The pork is also Lithuanian, from Lithuanian farms, and we also buy a part from the Krekenava company. The liver comes from the Kaišiadorys poultry farm, “Arvi” turkeys, says the director.
Currently, the company produces between 700 and 800 cans a day and its main customers are the large retail chains: Rimi, Maxima and Aibe.
“The products can also be bought in shops of exceptional taste, they are scattered throughout Lithuania,” adds the manager.
Speaking about the preparation of canned food, S. Kaupienė says that the whole process is done by hand: the meat is cut by hand, prepared, placed in boxes, spices are added, closed and packaged.
As for the trends of recent months, according to the director, about 50 percent. today it consists of its own products, and the remaining half – the provision of services to farmers and hunters.
“In fact, there has now been a significant increase in the number of clients requesting services, perhaps 40-50% compared to last year,” he said, asking what could have contributed to this, adding They got the media attention and recently redesigned the company’s website.
It is true that the products of this workshop also travel abroad. According to them, they are bought from the company by wholesalers and exported mainly to the countries where Lithuanians live, namely Norway, Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland.
When asked about the search for employees, the director does not hide the fact that it is difficult to find them here, and all who work here today are locals who live within a radius of about 4 km. The company currently has 7 employees.
“They are difficult to find because we are located in the town.
The second thing is that we cannot pay thousands of salaries. I hope that in 2020, when everything is counted, the company will be in the plus.
But we understand that people work hard and they don’t really care if there is a lot of profit. With us, they have 500 Eur in their hands, and those who work longer have a somewhat higher salary. But it is as it is.
“We have set ourselves the goal of raising wages, but we have to wait for that moment, and people, of course, understand, see how the trade is going, see how much we produce, how much we sell,” says the director about employees and their salaries.
Sandra Kaupienė
According to S. Kaupienė, the pandemic did not harm the company.
“Just as we work, we also work because we are in the food industry.
Before the first quarantine, there was real chaos, people swept everything, bought. And now, we haven’t even felt the second quarantine, “he says and talks about the planned development.
“We no longer have much space in these facilities, so we need to build a second workshop of this size. Sure, it is gratifying, but the company does not have so much money of its own, we will try to write projects, and the other thing is that our clients who bring they ask us to make sausages for their meat. This is the idea that has been around for several years, “he says.
The manager does not hide the fact that there was also a product whose production was abandoned. These were canned pork.
“It didn’t seem to work, and when we stopped production, everyone needed it,” he laughs.
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