The beginnings
Sante was born in April 1992 out of Andrzej Kowalski's, the founder and owner, personal interests in healthy food. Together with his brother Wojtek, Andrzej Kowalski decided to base the company on their thorough knowledge of nutritious food and passion for healthy lifestyle. First, they opened a shop in Saska Kêpa, Warsaw, where they sold healthy foods, pharmaceuticals and herbs. In 1993 Marek Kowalski, the third brother, joined the company, and in the next few years Witold Szpak followed in the third brother's footsteps. Dynamic growth marks the subsequent years - in 1993 the company had 3 outlets, and started selling brans and soya poducts. At the same time they launched their first product – muesli. The next year brought cooperation with trade chain Makro Cash&Carry, which gave Sante opportunity to develop and extend number of clients by entering into other food supermarkets.
The following years Sante attracted more and more clients, in particular, big supermarket chains and local shops, such as: Géant, Hit, Ahold, Intermarche, L'Eclerc, Billa, Jeronimo Martins, Carrefour, Auchan, Selgros, Mini Mal, Real, Tesco, Lewiatan, Nasze Sklepy, Polomarket, Stokrotka i Spar. Rapid development of the company as well as growing demand for its products contributed to the decision of increasing its production capacity and investment in a new production plant. This finally happened in 1998. New plant meant new possibilities of intensive development and further work aimed at improving the quality and extending the product range. Only one year later new products - soya chops fix and extremely popular, appreciated and highly recognized by clients Crunchy muesli - were launched on the market.
Sante today
Currently the company is a leader on a healthy food market, and Sante brand belongs to a group of the most valuable Polish brands and wins prestige awards, which prove consumers' aprreciation and loyalty (Coolbrands 2006/07). Sante's range of products exceeds 100, and their number is still growing. Such an explosive growth was caused by purchasing production plant in Sobolewo in 2002. The main reason for unusual dynamism is that Sante incredibly quickly introduces new products to the the market, an these, in turn, immediately attract regular customers. For many years the company has been exporting its products to Great Britain, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and Middle East.
Thanks to continuous investment in quality and product range Sante's turnover has been increasing by 25% annually for a few years. In 2006 the company outstripped its competitors, even powerful, international players, and became a leader on the muesli market.
Sante is also a sole distributor of AlproSoya products in Poland. AlproSoya is the leading producer of soya foods and drinks on European market. The fact that AlproSoya decided to choose Sante to distribute their products confirms the Polish company's high position and confidence, and comes as a token of appreciation.
In order to guarantee the highest quality and safety of the offered products, Sante has implemented and continuously observes Quality Management System that conforms to ISO 9001:2001 and HACCP.
15 years of Sante's presence on Polish market have brought many awards. Only in 2005 the company won 3 prestige awards:
Laur Konsumenta 2005 (Consumer's Laurel 2005), Gazela Biznesu 2005 (Business Gazelle 2005) and Lider Przedsiebiorczo¶ci 2005 (Enterprise Leader 2005). The following year Sante was again awarded prestige titles both from our consumers – Coolbrands 2006/2007 as well as independent experts – the company was highly rated in the most precious Polish brands ranking prepared by Polish broadsheet Rzeczpospolita and Ernst&Young.
Sante has brave visions concerning the company's future on the market, and has prepared ambitious development strategy to achieve their long-term and short-term goals. The company intends to strengthen its leading position as breakfast Crunchy and muesli producer and would like to be the main seller of soya and diet products as well as become a significant producer of their own brands in Europe.