– Eventually, with the first money I have earned, I did not pay my vacation but bought some beehives instead. After a few years, when I saw that the business was growing, I invited three friends to collaborate with me. They had to make some extremely tough decisions - abandon their previous careers and move to another part of Poland. One of my business partners have sold his dream house which he had built only e year earlier – says Arkadiusz Sadowski, president of the Sadowski Family Apiary.
– In an industry with hundreds of years of tradition, in just four years we have been able to create the largest beekeeping farm in Poland, he adds proudly.
Revolutionizing the bee business
Obtaining different types of honey is usually associated with placing hives where specific plants grow.
– It does not really work that way. It all depends on flowering periods. In our area we have rapeseed flowering at the beginning of May, followed by acacia, then tilia, and then buckwheat, explains Arkadiusz Sadowski.
Arkadiusz confirms that non all the honey branded Sadowski Family Apiary comes directly from their hives. They buy some from their local partners.
– This is how we support them. Not everyone has the sales and marketing potential that we do. Not everyone knows how to deal with it. We guarantee sales - explains the president of the Apiary.
Not only are they the largest, but they have also revolutionized the market by introducing flavoured honeys with the addition of various fruits, but also with spirulina, thyme, or coriander, for example. That way they have opened the traditional market to new customers – young and curious about unusual flavours. Interestingly, even though their business is developing in the age of computers and mechanisation, new flavours are not created in laboratories where machines measure every added ingredient to the milligram.
– We do not have a product development department. Ideas for new products come from our employees. Then we try honey with different proportions of additives and the flavours we like the most get on the product list - says Arkadiusz Sadowski.
The secret of success and financing
And that is how they have built a company that only last year have sold around 50-million-zloty worth products – honey and other healthy food products, generating twelve million zloty in profits. Sometimes they ship over 5,000 parcels to their customers a day.
– We owe our success to our lack of experience. There were no beekeepers in our families, career-wise, we all came from completely different sectors. That is why we were able to approach the beekeeping business with an open mind. We stood out visually, our products were interesting, we have reached customers through channels that were not obvious to the industry - through e-commerce and social media. That is why today, apart from honey, we also sell vinegars, oils, coffees, teas, accessories, all natural and of the highest quality – says the president of the Apiary. He explains that the automation of sales processes on all stages: ordering, parcel packing, shipping, and payment, helped a lot. Sadowski Family Apiary company has used ING SAIO platform, which provides business process automation solutions. The bank also offers payment solutions, such as imoje payment gateway.
At ING, we support companies that operate and grow in harmony with the natural environment. When we think about ESG, solar farms and wind farms often come to mind. Today we have learned about a business that has always operated in balance with nature. I cannot think of a greener industry than beekeeping. Honey and bees are pure ecology and healthy food.
At Pasieki Rodziny Sadowskich [Sadowski Family Apiary] tradition has been combined with the automation and digitization of business processes. And it has been a tremendous success. All in harmony with nature.
The story about the way they have financed their business is also unusual.
– We did not use EU funds or bank credit lines. We opted for our own financial liquidity. Whenever we plan to pay dividends, we think about our plans first. How we intend to develop the company, what products we are going to introduce - and we set aside money for these investments. And we pay the money out only if there is a surplus. - emphasizes Arkadiusz Sadowski. He believes that only thanks their conservative approach to business, they have been able to grow 7-8 times year on year. On the other hand, the entrepreneur admits that they have already achieved so much that similar growth in the following year will not be possible. Even more so because these are tough times for e-commerce and premium products, because it is their middle-class customers who feel the effects of inflation and interest rate hikes the most.
They have decided to take a step forward.
– In the summer, we will introduce the forgotten classic and fruit meads into our offer. We approach them in a traditional way. We are creating a new product with added fruit, we are going for a modern packaging design, which – in my opinion – will grab customers attention - Arkadiusz Sadowski reveals. We have a few more ideas for the future and it will be our immense pleasure to surprise you with them - he concludes.