Nature in jars

WHEN you enter Darbo’s production hall, you’re greeted by an irresistible olfactory impact: right at the first line, the rich aroma of mellow-sweet strawberry jam suffuses the air you breathe. And whilst still overwhelmed by this tantalising smell, hints of refreshing elderberry are wafting their way from further on the right, which quite soon transpose into a savoury fragrance of apricots, triggering memories of carefree happy childhood days and Sundays in granny’s kitchen. Associations that are most definitely intended because Darbo uses only traditional recipes. Jam is by its very nature a very conservative product, explains board chairman, Martin Darbo.That’s why there’s no need to re-invent the wheel here. On the contrary: “We want to get the products to the consumer in as natural a state as possible. Because what nature gives us – fruit and sugar – is a perfect food just as it is; you don’t need to mess around with it really.”

For the products of the Natural Purity line, only four ingredients are used: fruit, sugar, lemon juice concentrate and the gelling agent pectin – however in enormous quantities. Every year, for example, Darbo boils up 14,000 tonnes of fruit and 12,000 tonnes of sugar to create jams, jellies and fruit desserts. These are complemented by fruit preparations for the dairy and bakery industries, plus various types of honey and syrup. This last category demonstrates how Darbo manages the rare feat of opening a traditional product world gently up for new things while at the same time maintaining its original authenticity. “The syrups are still a relatively young product grouping for us”, says Martin Darbo. “At some point along the way, we noticed that this segment in Austria resembled a pyramid without a top, and swiftly decided to fill that void.” The plan worked: on its home market of Austria, Darbo Syrup meanwhile has a market share of more than 15%.

The ambition to be better than others

New products are developed in-house. The basic ideas involved come from all parts of the company: from the board, from the lab, from production – staff across all departments have already provided some input. The most important aspect for any product launch is that it WORKS. “Innovations have to fit in with the brand. We only tackle things where we’re quite certain that we can do them better than others and can thus take the lead in terms of quality,” said Mr Darbo. “Other producers first fix a price and then choose the ingredients and the production process to match it. We adopt the opposite approach.” His uncle, Adolf Darbo, responsible for the engineering remit on the board, sums up the firm’s strategy: “We don’t want any part of the cheap-end market, we want to see our product ideas and our quality aspirations translated into consumer reality.”

In 2012, Darbo achieved a turnover of 117.2 million euros with a payroll of 300. The entire production operation is situated in the Austrian district of Schwaz. The location in the midst of the Tyrolean Alps is an integral part of Darbo’s corporate identity.

Miniature jars: a Tyrolean idea conquers the world

Nearly 50% of Darbo’s production output is exported. The Austrian company supplies more than 60 countries, and mainly to Italy, Russia, China, North America and the Gulf region. The high proportion of exports is due primarily to a revolutionary idea that originated with Martin Darbo’s grandfather: to fill portion packs for the catering trade. Nowadays, the characteristic 28-gramNIKE