Salad days

Ewa Czyżewska, the founder and vice president of Batavia Fresh, loves salad. And that's the Western European-global concept of salad, not the mayonnaise-ridden mish-mash of diced vegetables that Poles like to call sałatka. "I still like sałatki but after traveling abroad I developed a taste for fresh Mediterranean salads," Czyżewska said. "Unfortunately in Poland the concept is still evolving, but there's already been a massive step forward in terms of salad eating." Batavia Fresh, based in Sulejówek, just outside Warsaw, is Czyżewska's small contribution to the development of a salad-eating culture in Poland. The company, named after the French Crisp lettuce, packages salads that are already washed and shredded, ready-made for people in a hurry. Ready-made salads have been available in the West for at least a decade but Czyżewska said she was the first to bring the concept to the Polish market when she set up her company in 1996. "I used to work for a Dutch company and when I went to Holland I saw these types of products on supermarket shelves, and it was at a time in Poland when the first hypermarkets where starting," she said. "So I thought it would be a good idea to start it here too."

Cool reception After researching the production procedure, it took about six months to procure packaging and lettuce processing machinery and set the whole operation going. "We started distributing in 1997, but at first there was a problem as it turned out (hypermarkets) didn't have refrigerators in the fruit and vegetable section," Czyżewska said. "Luckily now it's become a standard and sales have definitely picked up as a result." Czyżewska declined to talk about specific numbers but said she distributes to Auchan's Polish stores and the Carrefour network, her latest client, which includes the Globi and Champion supermarkets. "Because (hypermarkets) have a central logistical base in Warsaw, they take care of further distribution both city- and country-wide," Czyżewska said. "This means I just have to deliver to Warsaw in a temperature-controlled vehicle to satisfy delivery requirements and they take care of the rest." According to Carrefour's spokeswoman, Agata Paszkowska, packaged salad is still not a hugely popular line, but rather something Carrefour offers to fill a niche demand. "Traditional unprepared vegetables are still the most popular for salad making," she said. "But all our stock range depends on our clients. If there's a demand, we fill the niche." Czyżewska is convinced that bagged salad is a product for the future and expects sales to improve once the economy recovers. "At the moment people are saving and one of the first temptations is to save on ready-made food products," she said. "The peak in sales for me was definitely 1999, and the best time of year is usually March and April, but this year it's also gotten a bit better than last year - although that's because the only two competitors I had suddenly fell out of the market."

In the cabbage patch And although Czyżewska still thinks the sałatka and surówka culture has a grip on Poland, she sees it as a huge potential market to convert. "When I started, people hadn't even heard of iceberg lettuce, and there's still millions of people who buy surówki that are packaged like (ready-made) salad," she said. "But with the younger generation there is more interest - although the ready-made cabbage is still the most popular in my product range." But even Polish-style sałatki are having a tough time on the market this year, said Stanisława Forisz, the general manager of Rexford, which distributes a range of sałatki to Bomi and Leclerc supermarkets in Warsaw. "There is less and less demand," Forisz said. "Because of the economic situation, people just don't have money - more people are making sałatki at home and there is also huge competition. We waited for a year to get onto Bomi's shelves, which is difficult because they have masses of requirements to satisfy and we have to sell at a minimum profit, and sometimes it doesn't seem worth it at all." As a five-person operation, Batavia Fresh keeps overhead to a minimum by using the latest packaging equipment, which labels salads with detailed calorie information for the figure conscious. The packaging machines also allow Czyżewska to give her salads as much as an eight-day shelf life, an edge over her five-day-shelf-life sałatka competition. The specific ingredients for each bag vary. "When a certain vegetable is in season, of course I buy it up and package it, like carrots at the moment," she said. Standard salad products are, however, available year round regardless of seasonal supply problems. "From May to November, my iceberg and radicchio lettuce comes from a domestic supplier and in between I buy from Spain," she said. As soon as the economic situation improves, Czyżewska will consider evolving the product further by including such things as dressing and crouton sachets with her salads.