Whole-grains, chia, black seeds and no added sugar are making the best cookies ever

Have you ever tried a delicious whole-grain cookie with chia seeds or black seeds and sugar free? So far we haven’t seen such products on shelves. But maybe it’s time to give it a try and our R&D team makes it possible.

So, what’re the delicious but healthier products our R&D invented?

1. Whole-grain  gingerbread with chia seeds.

We are sure you are very well aware of the benefits of whole grains: “You’re getting fiber, a healthy plant-based protein, vitamins, minerals and a variety of phytochemicals that will improve your health,” says Lilian Cheung, DSc, RD, a lecturer in nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. They help digestion, could help lower the cholesterol, lower the blood pressure, can help control the weight, regulate the blood sugar, etc.

 

Moreover, chia seeds are adding even more value to our newly developed product. Chia seeds have powerful nutritional punch containing a lot of fibre, magnesium, protein, calcium, phosphorus, calcium, zinc, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2. Furthermore, chia seeds is whole grain food grown organically, are non GMO and naturally free of gluten. And another thing, guess what is it? The whole process is handmade based on authentic recipe developed in house.

2. Whole-grain sandwich cookies with black seeds and sugar free.

We briefly listed some of the benefits whole grains have, but what about black seeds? Black seeds include amino acids, proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, vitamin B. In addition, research has shown that cumin may stimulate the secretion of pancreatic enzymes, compounds necessary for proper digestion and nutrient assimilation. It’s super delicious sugar free sandwich biscuit.

3.Whole grain biscuits with black seeds and sugar free.

This is same as the sandwich cookie product but without the cream. It can be made in various shapes.

With the development of these 3 recipes we’d like to expand our product portfolio and join the healthier confectionary family. We’d like to serve as many customer profiles as possible. We hope in future we’ll offer a lot more in this category.

Any suggestion for our R&D team? We’d love to hear your creative ideas in the comments section.

 

Cookie Facts – 10 Fun and Surprising Things You Didn’t Know About Cookies

“When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things”.

Dear readers, we hope you celebrated well with your loving ones. May the positive vibes surround you throughout the whole year. As the celebration mood of Christmas and New Year is still very much in the air, we’d like to entertain you with 10 awesome facts about cookies: 

1.Cookies were first made in 7th century in Persia (modern-day Iran), one of the first countries to cultivate sugar.

2.In the late 1970s, John Kerry, current United States Secretary of State, was bored of being a just a lawyer so he opened a Boston cookie store – Kilvert & Forbes Bakeshop – that remains in business today.

3.The Japanese never fail to shock Western sweets lovers. Beside the soy sauce Kit Kat bars and horse flavoured ice cream, they are proud to introduce to you the so called “Unagi Pie” (a specialty of Hamamatsu, Japan) – a cookie made with fresh
butter, garlic, crushed eel bones and eel extract.

4.The United States is a leader in many fields including the cookie bakers and eaters. It’s spending more than $550 million annually on Oreos alone.

5.In the Middle East, chocolate chip cookies are topped with chocolate sauce and eaten with knife and fork.

6.The world’s largest chocolate chip cookie weighed about 18 tones, was 30.7 meters in diameter and contained 30000 eggs. Now, that’s a big cookie.

 

7.Gingerbread dates from the 15th century and one century later the figural biscuit-making was practiced. Queen Elizabeth I is credited with the idea of making and presenting gingerbread figures in the likeness of some of her important guests.

8.The inventor of the chocolate chip cookie sold the idea to Nestle Toll House in return for a lifetime supply of chocolate.

9.Cookies as we know them today originally were made not to eat but to test oven temperature. Cooks would take a small dollop of cake batter and bake it as a means of gauging whether the oven was ready or not.

10.Letting the prepared dough sit in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours will flavour up your chocolate chip cookies.

Hope you liked our selection. Do you know any other fun thing about cookies we didn’t mention in this post? If yes, then please share it in the comments section. We’d love to hear it.

This is How We Made 2016 One of the Best Years for Our Company

“Strive for progress, not perfection.”

Before we say goodbye to 2016 and wish you a Happy New Year we’d like to look back and sum up our top 10 achievements for the past year. It’s been a busy year full of changes. There were tough times but at the end of the day this made us even more competitive on the global market and led us to a significant progress. In this post we selected the top 10 achievements which certainly improved the overall performance of the company and set the ground for even greater advancement in 2017. Perhaps, some of them will trigger your interest in exploring opportunities to cooperate with us.

1. Our pallet of products was successfully showcased on PLMA 2016 in Amsterdam where one of our pilot projects was selected as innovative and presented among innovations in the Idea Market to more than 12000 trade professionals from over 115 countries. .

2.  Our company got certified with another leading safety and quality certification programme –  the BRC Global Standards which is widely known of it’s high criteria and strict grading. With this we hold 4 quality certificates: ISO 22000, HACCP, BRC and HALAL.

3. Three new markets opened the doors to our products: the UK, Sweden and Slovenia.

4. We launched 6 new own branded products: Ninja Biscuit 33gr, Medence 33gr, Medence Coko 33gr, Fresh Original 176gr, Fresh Choco 228gr and Lean Tea Biscuits 400gr.

5. Our R&D invented very specific recipes for sugar free and palm oil free sandwich cookies that significantly expanded our target market. Additionally, in the end of this year the team has started the development of cereal sandwich cookies which we hope will be ready to hit our markets either as private label or own brands in the first quarter of 2017.

6. We placed special focus on private label projects that in effect helped us enrich our experience, knowledge and skills in this field. Furthermore, we plan to double the private label  cooperations in 2017.

7. We improved our organizational infrastructure accompanied by significant process optimization.

8. We finalized the preparations for capacity expansion expected to take place in 2017.

9. Our team visited couple of food fairs in Europe in order to keep up with global trends and challenges.

10. Our products were successfully presented to the Chinese market too where we hope to establish long term partnerships in 2017.

With this we close up the year. Our production facilities will open again on January 15, 2017 with new energy, fresh ideas and big plans for making another great year for Via Prom. In meantime, if you are willing to contact our sales team do not hesitate to send us a message to sales@viaprom.com.mk – our sales team is always available to you.

We wish you a lot of happiness and prosperity in 2017.

Private Label: 5 Reasons to Choose Us to Make Your Own Branded Cream Cookies

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth

        Last week we published a post about what private label is, what are the current trends, advantages and disadvantages of this type of partnerships.

As a quick reminder, we mentioned that the biggest disadvantages of getting into private label cooperation are 1) Manufacturer risk (be well aware who you choose as a partner) and 2) Brand building challenge.

       

Here comes our role to help you eliminate potential threats when developing your own brand of cream (sandwich) cookies. As a company specialized in the production of private label sandwich biscuits, we know how to deal with all the technical challenges you would normally face when making your own branded biscuits. We help you overcome those challenges successfully, fast and easy. Moreover, we help you build brands too. Thus, Via Prom is the right partner to choose for your private label project and there are 5 main reasons that support our statement:

1. Focus (we are specialized in sandwich cookies production – this is what we do best, thus we assure high and standard quality at competitive prices).
2. Fast (our great past experience helped us learn how to create new brands fast and easy).
3. Family owned (We care about our company, its stability and progress the way only family owned companies care. We’ve implemented values and principles in everyday business activities like only family owned companies implement. And most importantly, we care about our clients and their success the way we care about our own company and our own success. Quality, great customer service and business ethics are the key pillars of every cooperation we’ve built).
4. 24/7/365 availability (you can reach us during holidays, after work hours, weekends, anytime. Our highly motivated team is willing to answer you anytime you need us).
5. Free of charge design services (in case you like to develop a brand for which you do not have a specific design and name we are here to do that for you for free).

Additionally, we support your private label projects by offering you: possibilities to develop new products upon your request, great quality at most competitive prices, great logistics optimization, quality proof (ISO 22000, HACCP, HALAL, BRC – new standards to be introduced upon your request), proven success (we export to Europe, USA and Middle East), credibility (member of world’s Private Label Manufacturing Association – PLMA accompanied by ongoing successful business stories), long term relationship, trust and reliability.

Let’s discuss our mutual interests and business opportunities directly face to face, over the phone or over email. We are kindly inviting you to drop us a message on sales@viaprom.com.mk and we’ll get in touch shortly.

The World of Private Label in the Food Industry: Trends, Pros and Cons

Private label brands, or also known as store brands, have become a trend that is overtaking significant role in the global food market; especially today, when many private label products are becoming premium brands by offering high quality and competing with big brand names.

What is private label? – Generally, products manufactured by one company under the brand of another company are known as private label products. In most of the cases, the company for which the private label product is being produced is providing the manufacturing company with packaging design, packaging weight details, brand name etc. (upon customer’s request, our company offers brand name and packaging design development for free – please read about this in our next week’s post).

“The latest Nielsen statistics reveal clearly that 2015 was a good year for retailer brands in Europe. There were gains for private label in both large and small retail markets as well as in all geographic regions”, says Brian Sharoff, President of PLMA. Following this statement,  the PLMA International Industry News is summarizing some of the Nielsen findings such as:

• Volume share climbed to 46% in the UK, reaching its highest level there since 2010.
• Volume share climbed by more than 35 % to its highest level since 2012 in France.
• In Germany, the market share for retailer brands stayed above 40% for the eighth consecutive year.
• Private label now accounts for four of every ten products sold in Austria, and in Switzerland market share has stayed over 50% for more than a decade.
• In the north, all four of the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden—posted market share gains.
• Volume share has climbed above 30% in Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, while private label share in Poland is now nearly four times as high as when Nielsen first started compiling statistics there in 2003.
• In Spain, market share stayed above 50% for the fourth consecutive year, while shoppers in Italy, Greece and Turkey keep putting more private label products in their baskets.
• In Portugal, market share remains above 40%.

What are the main advantages of filing stores’ shelves with products featuring your brand name?

1. Control over production: manufacturers work at the retailer’s direction, offering complete control over product ingredients and quality.

2.Control over pricing: having a control over the product ingredients and quality, followed by direct purchases from the manufacturer in bigger volumes, allows retailers to have a bigger control over pricing which means offering more competitive products on shelves.

3. Becoming a market leader: besides offering products at competitive prices, a private label cooperation will offer a possibility for your company to become a market leader in terms of innovation. You will have the ability to move quickly and introduce a new product in response to rising market demand for a new feature, while larger companies offering branded products might not be interested in a niche product or it will take them quite a lot of time until they make all those market analysis and execute the idea. This creates the risk of another company taking the lead.

4. Control over branding: you have complete control over brand name, packaging design, and product weight. Surely we can help upon your request.

5. Higher margin: thanks to the control over product costs and pricing, your company can reach higher margins in comparison to branded products.

 

 

Certainly there are some disadvantages too like for example:

1. Manufacturer risk: since the production of your private label product is in the hands of another company, surely there’s always a risk related to product delivery, standard quality and increase of prices. However, this risk can be reduced even eliminated when cooperating with well established companies having a good reputation and experience in private label.

2. Brand building challenge: Developing a new brand in the highly competitive food market is quite of a challenge. Moreover, creating a brand loyalty is taking time, patience and investment in promotions and different types of advertising which is on retailers’/ clients’ shoulders. However, if the partnering manufacturing company provides great products, standard quality at competitive prices and all these packed in an attractive design, your team will find the motivation and tools to successfully create your brand accompanied with strong brand loyalty.

There might be some other threats and risks depending on your manufacturing partner, however these two are the most common risks that generally apply to every private label project.

Next week we’ll publish a post telling you how our company, Via Prom, can help you eliminate the common threats when developing own branded cream cookies (sandwich cookies). Stay tuned. 

Best sandwich biscuits in the Balkans

Couple of months ago, Via Prom Macedonia expanded its sandwich biscuits pallet with two new products: Fresh Original and Fresh Choco.

Fresh Original is extra dark (black) cocoa flavoured sandwich biscuit with vanilla – milk cream. There are 4 wrappers in each Fresh Original 176g Box. Each wrapper contains 4 sandwich biscuits.

Fresh Choco is chocolate covered sandwich biscuits. The biscuits are cocoa flavoured (extra dark – black) and the cream is vanilla-milk flavour. There are 6 wrappers in the Fresh Choco 228g box. Each wrapper contains two chocolate covered sandwich biscuits.

As a quick reminder, all products of Via Prom, including the new ones, are ISO 22000 including HACCP, HALAL and BRC certified.

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Via Prom Macedonia is a manufacturing company of different types of biscuits with the main focus on sandwich biscuit production. It develops and exports own brands as well as private label brands.  It’s located in Ohrid, Macedonia – South Eastern Europe. It’s a family owned company founded in 2001 in Ohrid. The company holds ISO 22000 including HACCP, HALAL and BRC certificates. Additionally, the company is a member of the PLMA – Private Label Manufacturing Association.  

http://www.viaprom.com.mk

It’s official: Via Prom selected for PLMA’s New Product Expo

We are excited to inform you that one of our pilot projects, sugar free and palm fat free sandwich biscuit was approved to be displayed in the New Product Expo at PLMA 2016 in Amsterdam . This means that based on the level of innovation of the product we submitted, the Selection Committee was convinced it is worth placing it in the spotlight, displayed in showcases in a central location during trade show hours. The New Product Expo will be located in the Idea Supermarket and can be viewed by all visitors and exhibitors at PLMA 2016.

To remind you, PLMA trade show is the number one event worldwide dedicated to private label industry. According to the general information provided by PLMA, this year there will be more than 4 300 exhibit stands. Furthermore, exhibitors will have an extraordinary opportunity to meet retail and wholesale buyers, executives from supermarkets, hypermarkets, drugstores, discounters, department stores, specialty stores, DIY, cash & carry, hospitality industry and buying groups plus importers and exporters from over 115 countries (about 12 000 trade professionals).

As SuperMarketNews writes, “for more than 30 years, PLMA’s annual trade show has been the industry event of the year, where retailers and wholesalers source for their private label programs. Buyers from every channel will be at the 2016 show”.

For the second year in a row, Via Prom with its pallet of products will exhibit on this show.  Below you can find details of the event and our stand. Looking forward to meet you.

24-25 May, PLMA 2016 Amsterdam
FOOD SECTION
RAI Holland Complex / Hall 8
Stand number: 8323

Late night work, jazz and biscuits

As PLMA 2015 is approaching we are making the final preparations. Here’s tonight’s work outcome. Do you like it?

As a quick reminder, we will be exhibiting on this year’s PLMA, world’s biggest private label trade show with our product range which you could check out on Via Prom’s official website. The trade show takes place on 19 and 20 May in Amsterdam. Details about our stand are following:

PLMA 2015 FOOD SECTION, RAI Holland Complex / Hall 8

Stand number: 8735

Hope to see you there.