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High quality preserves for a healthy lifestyle

Name of the company: Dary Natury – Paweł Mazur
Country: Poland
Size of the business: Family business (5 persons)

BUSINESS CASE

Background

Jams and juices…if your garden is productive, sometimes you end up piling up home-made preserves in your basement, but if you have too many for you to eat, why not making profit out of it? This is how the Dary Natury family business started in 2015, and progressively transformed into a successful company. On their farm, the family already had a 10 acres orchard full of fruits, from black elderberry, chokeberry, and black currant to quince. This orchard, complemented by 7 hectares for agricultural land, provided the main resources they needed to make their preserves. Nonetheless, to upscale their home-made production, they had to build a proper production facility, with dedicated equipment, meeting all the necessary standards to sell their products on the market. Thanks to a small grant of 50,000 PLN obtained in 2015, they created their production infrastructure, and started selling their first products. Building on their success, in the following years, they customised their labels and tested new recipes to develop their range of products. The company is based in an ideal location, not far from the city of Wrocław, and even though it is not very large yet, the business has always been profitable, since its very beginning, and there are currently positive perspectives for their future development.

At the beginning, the business focused on the sale of three main products: elderberry syrup, dandelion fruit, and flowers. Later, they added a variety of fruit jams to complement their product range. At the same time, they continue planting their own crops to keep developing their production for the future.
From recipes to finances, all activities in the company are based on generational knowledge and family know-how, making of Dary Natury a true family business. At the moment, five family members are involved in the work, although the mother is currently the one performing the main tasks, including marketing and finances. They sometimes cooperate with similar entities for training, but can also build on their own past experience running a business in the everyday life.

Dary Natury makes all of its revenues through the sale of their preserves. 90% of their production is sold to local customers, while 10% of the sales are made at the occasion of various exhibitions, fairs, and events. Dary Natury sell their preserves to other businesses (B2B), including shops featuring healthy and local food, and individual customers, mostly young families and individuals between 25 and 35 years old paying attention to their health and diet. Shops are located within a radius of up to 30 kilometers from the company's headquarters (including Wrocław, Strzelin, Kobierzyce.
Although many people also produce preserves in the region, it is usually only for their personal consumption. Competition is thus rather limited currently, and the quality of Dary Natury’s products is greatly appreciated by its customers, which makes the difference with other companies offering a diverse range of products, which is usually of lower quality.
Social media are an important driver for attracting new clients, together with fairs and exhibitions, but contact with current and potential customers is also maintained over the phone.

The most important challenges for Dary Natury relied in the regular legal changes and new regulations coming up in the food production sector. For a small business, it requires a lot of time to follow and adapt to regulatory changes. The company would also like to extend its range of products, but the National Sanitary Inspection is arguing that the business is too small to produce a wider range of products, so the discussions are still ongoing.
While training is essential to follow the regulations and make a business grow, the costs are rather high for small family businesses like Dary Natury, and the training locations are usually very far away from the site, which makes it rather challenging for the company. Economic and environmental issues are also a concern for the business, with increasing taxes impacting the production costs, and land pollution that might affect the quality of the raw materials in the future.

The orchard and the land were already owned by the family, but in 2015, the company received a 50,000 PLN grant dedicated to small projects to build its facilities and buy the equipment. The grant represented 50% of the initial investment, amounting in total €10,000, the other part being covered by the family’s own savings. Since then, the company re-invested €10,000, including various subsidies received throughout the years, which represent, with the initial grant received, 80% of the total investment in the company.

Building everything from scratch, based on generational knowledge and natural resources: this is the story of Dary Natury. But besides an ideally located family business, Dary Natury is also a creative company, looking at social media to boost sales and customer relations, and maintaining close links with other organisations to get trained in the field. The company has always been looking at new ways and recipes to diversify their product range, while maintaining high quality standards, which contributes greatly to their reputation and growing success.

Getting trained in the marketing field and learning how to use social media to boost the sales and customer relations was critical for the manager of the company. Nonetheless, the family know-how at the origin of the business and the knowledge gathered from other people working in the same field still play a key role in the business success.
The increasing awareness of consumers on products quality, and trends supporting healthy lifestyles should help boosting further the sales and the development of the company in the future. The company has plans to expand its production and increase its range of products, through the acquisition of new distribution points and increased promotion. The current market and location of the company, near to a large city, create good conditions for business development, but the company will need adequate financial support to make their dream a reality.

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