What has happened over the 20 years?

In November, our company was voted the best company in Food Production Category in the Our Good Products from Pomerania Poll carried out by the Głos Dziennik Pomorza.

25 firms and companies from Middle and Western Pomerania participated. The poll comprised two parts: a text message poll during which the readers of the Głos could vote and in which we took the fifth place, and a competition where awards, in five separate categories, were granted by an independent award committee. 

We were awarded a commemorative statuette,  a check for 20.000pln to be spent on advertising campaigns in regional media and the Quality Mark which we can use for two years.

In June, during the Lębork Days of Technology Inauguration Ceremony, the Lębork  Region Certificates of Merit were awarded- prestigious distinctions awarded, from year 2004, to companies and organisations in recognition of their achievements and activities for the benefit of Lębork Poviat.

One of the two special awards of the Chapter of the Lębork Region Certificate of Merit was granted to Bogdan Tatarkiewicz, Deputy Managing Director of FFP.

The ISO9001 standard was replaced by ISO22000, which, like its predecessor, confirmed that our company met the highest standards of food safety.

Our company’s activities have been regularly tested and verified for their compliance with both of the standards and the results of the inspections have been favourable for us each and every time.

In September, a system for heat recovery from the fumes coming from the pre-frying system was installed.

The project was co-financed by the EU within the frames of the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Programme.

During the first year of the operation of the heat recovery system, we saved the amount equivalent of 1 million m³ of natural gas.

TeleInfo Magazine granted FFP an award for the best computerised business in Poland in 2006. 

We received this award in Food Industry Category.

In the summer of 2006, our Company made first investments with a view to increasing the plant’s production capacity.

Modernization of the plant was continued in the summer 2007.

As of July 1st, the Aviko and Farm Frites Sales and Marketing Departments were excluded from the FFP organisational structure.

The shareholders’ decision on the reorganization of the company was the effect of changing market conditions due to ongoing processes of markets being united within Europe, and  development of distribution channels.

Since that day, our company’s  sole responsibility has been the production of French fries. The functions related to sales and marketing were transferred to independent trade offices being the Polish branches of our shareholders’ companies, i.e. Farm Frites and Aviko.

McDonald’s restaurant chain was still our key client.

There were 247 people employed with our company at the end of the year and the amount of potato processed throughout the year reached the level of 130.000 tons.

In October, the results of the Employer- Safe Work Organiser Competition were announced. Our company was ranked second.

The competition, which took into consideration companies employing more than 50 people, was organised by the Regional Work Standards and Safety Inspectorate in Gdańsk.

On September 10th, a gala event closing the FFP’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations was held in Opera Leśna in Sopot.

600 hundred people arrived and among our honourable guests were Gerrit de Bruijne – the founder and the Chairman of  Farm Frites in the Netherlands, Jan Zikken- the former Chairman of Aviko in the Netherlands, Witold Namyślak- the Mayor of Lębork, and our staff members, clients and media representatives. 

The main attraction was, undoubtedly,  Kayah’s concert. Her energetic performance raised the guests’ spirits for the rest of that unforgettable evening.

September 4^th was the Open Day in our plant.

Those who only wanted to had a unique occasion to view the plant and learn about the fries production process.

600 people  availed themselves of this opportunity.

On August 29th, a football match between the FFP and the Lębork Town Hall teams was played on the municipal football stadium.

The final score was 6:2 for our team, and the taste of victory equalled the taste of our fries. 

The match was accompanied by numerous games and competitions for children.

The 28thday of August  was the beginning of the Fries Week.

During the Farewell to the Summer Fair, thousands of participants and spectators were attracted by performances, concerts and games and fun activities or children.

It was also the day of the opening of the exhibition called 10 Years of French Fries in Lębork which was accompanied by the presentation of works and pictures created by children for the My French Fries Adventures Art Contest. The contest finalists received valuable prizes and their schools were given funds to be spent on sport activities and educational purposes. 

During the fair, funds for the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre were raised within the frames of the Good Heart Charity Campaign.

In August, FFP was awarded the Lębork Lion.

The bronze statuette was received by the Managing Director, Mr E.C. Lehmann-Bärenklau, during our company’s 10th Anniversary Celebrations.

Our company was rewarded for its openness to the problems of the local community demonstrated through actions taken for the benefit of, among others, sportspeople, the hospital, the Fire Service and the establishment of the Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children.

In July, the potato pancakes line was launched.

It was the first project of this type in Eastern Europe.

Starting up the line cost five million zlotys of which one million zlotys was the amount co-financed within the frames of the EU SAPARD Programme.

16 people were employed at the new line.

On June 1st , the We are together Children’s Rehabilitation Centre at 5th Primary School in Lębork was opened.

The Centre came into existence thanks to the assistance of the Municipality of Lębork, which rendered the physiotherapy room in the school building, and FFP which had the room renovated and provided the rehabilitation equipment, i.e., among others, the gait training parallel bars, a massage table, a table for mental stimulation, and a treadmill.

Our company has been providing patronage for the Centre to this day by paying partially for the work of the physiotherapist.

The celebration of the Jubilee Year began on January 17th during the New Year's Party.

During the evening there was a concert of violin players - Julita and Paula Sokolowski, and anniversary lottery, from which the total income has been designed to support the creation of the Children's Rehabilitation Center.

At midnight on the birthday cake candles lit.

The Emergency Response Team was formed.

The ERT consisted of 24 employees thoroughly trained in giving first aid to the injured.

The ERT exists to this day and receives regular trainings so that we can be sure of their competence and reliability in an emergency. 

The team also actively participates in the trial fire and ammonia alarms. Such exercises are organized every year in our company in order to check the operation of the ammonia and smoke detectors, as well as the reaction of employees and relevant departments in case of leakage of ammonia or fire.

The retail market share of our fries packaged into bags with Aviko and Farm Frites logos on them was nearly 70%. The market share in respect of sale of fries for restaurants and catering industry was approximately 60%.

The number of our employees exceeded 200 at the end of the year.

In December, the best companies of Słupskie Voivodeship were awarded Silver Bear statuettes.

The awards were granted for the first time and our Company was among six companies that were rewarded for their major contribution to the promotion of Słupsk Region.

In October, we had our Quality Management System certified in accordance with ISO9001 and HACCP standards.

The Certificate was issued by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance and covered the whole production process - from obtaining raw materials to the final product.

It was confirmed that FFP had a modern system of management and production in place while its clients were given a guarantee of high quality product  and product safety.

FFP became a supplier of French fries for McDonald’s.

At the beginning of our cooperation, we delivered French fries to two markets.

Nowadays, French fires from Lębork are delivered to almost 900 McDonald’s restaurants in twelve European countries. Find out more about our cooperation here.

In Autumn 1994, the plant was opened and the production of French fries was launched.

On the plot of land which was but wasteland overgrown with tall grass only one year earlier, a nearly 40 million dollars French fries plant, one of the most modern ones in Europe, was built.

Its white external walls with red trims were eye-catching and very impressive. The materials used for the construction were from Poland while the production machinery and equipment were brought from Western Europe.

Mr. E.C. Lehmann-Bärenklau was appointed the President and CEO of Farm Frites Poland. He holds this position to date.

At first, the company employed 80 staff members, including some specialists from the Netherlands who were responsible for the implementation of international standards of production and training of their Polish successors.
33 staff members who were employed in 1994 are still working for us.

The production capacity of the plant was 40.000 tons of fries per year.

In July, several of our first employees went to the Netherlands to attend a two-month training course at the seat of Farm Frites.

Apart from being given instruction in the production of French fries, they also took an intensive course of English there.

The training was not in vain, as most of these people still work in FFP.

Polish varieties of potato, though very tasty when eaten traditionally prepared, were not suitable, in terms of size and shape, for the production of long American-style  fries. So it was decided that the varieties of potato suitable for fries would be bred in Poland in accordance with Western technologies.  

In December 1993, an agricultural farm covering approx. 4000 hectares of arable land located in Damnica Gmina and Główczyce Gmina was taken over from the local state-owned farm.  On its premises, Farm Frites Poland Dwa was established to handle and manage potato breeding for the purposes of the plant to be built.

Farm Frites Poland Dwa was almost the sole supplier of potatoes for the first two years . As the demand for the raw material was growing, the circle of suppliers started to expand to finally reach 80 suppliers at present.

The construction of the plant in Lębork commenced in November 1993.

However, originally it was a place in the vicinity of Słupsk that was chosen for the location of the plant. The idea was abandoned as it was necessary to change the land use classification from agricultural-land use to industrial-land use, which would be very costly.
The authorities of the town of Lębork were very favourably inclined towards the idea of building  the plant in their town. Out of the lots offered, the Farm Frites representatives chose a plot of land which was a boggy meadow at that time.

As soon as the construction of foundations started, there were people coming to Lębork to apply for a job in the plant.
Nearly 2500 applications were filed and only 70 positions were available.

When Farm Frites had its investment plans ready, Aviko, which also wanted to build a French fries production plant in Poland then, put forward a cooperation proposal. The two competing companies were united by the joint project in Lębork.