QUALITY IS OUR DRIVING FORCE
What does quality mean in Pivara Skopje?
Quality is one of the driving forces of our company. When I say quality, I’m not only referring to the quality of our products, but also to the quality of the environment, the working environment of our employees, the technology we use, working processes, distribution, packaging and all other activities we perform on daily basis and which affect both our company and our society.
Our motto is that ensuring quality is a responsibility of each and every employee in our company and it is integral part of all day-to-day operations of our employees. Quality is simply in our blood and all Pivara Skopje’s employees are maximally dedicated to it, since it is the only way of reaching our clear common objective of having satisfied customers who would choose our products again and again.
The impeccable quality is achieved, maintained and continuously improved by systematic implementation and total adherence to many procedures and standards. Our company is a leader on the Macedonian market when it comes to quality system creation and management, and this conclusion is based on facts. Pivara Skopje is the first company in the country having implemented the ISO 22000 food safety management systems standard in its soft drinks and beer production operations, upgrading the existing ISO 9001 and HACCP standards. On the other hand, the company has also implemented ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards which are constantly maintained and upgraded. At this point, it is worth mentioning that Pivara Skopje is one of the leading companies in the process of implementation of the EU Directive on packaging and packaging waste.
The next step of our company is the implementation of the ISO 50001 standard, and we expect that this standard will help us improve our energy resources management, thus improving the quality of the environment in which we operate.
What is the secret behind Pivara Skopje’s soft drinks, making them the best in the world? Could you tell us more about the prominent awards for excellence awarded by The Coca-Cola Company?
It may seem pretty simple at first glance, but our production of soft drinks is a very complex process, designed based on global standards and which is constantly subject to strict controls. Sophisticated equipment meeting the highest criteria, requirements and standards in the area of food production has been installed in the production floor. We also pay great deal of attention to maintaining high levels of hygiene and implementation of the best business practices to our daily operations. Moreover, employee’s skills, qualifications, and utmost dedication to their work are of exceptional importance for the proper operation of this particular section. Only people whom we trust completely and who function as a compact unit work in this section. Our results are due to team work. All of our employees are trying to do their best and it is only in this way we have managed to produce top quality products.
Of course, it should be mentioned that the production process is controlled in each stage, starting from the entry of raw materials, production, storage, up to the distribution to buyers and final consumers. Only a finished product that meets the highest criteria is allowed to leave the production floor and be distributed to the market, simply because our consumers deserve top quality products and that is what we give them.
The best quality recognition within The Coca-Cola Company is awarded to bottling companies whose beverages receive the highest rankings based on the quality index during controls performed by independent international laboratories. Quality control checks are performed on beverages samples taken from randomly selected stores. The best quality recognition is awarded only to producers which manage to get the highest rankings on beverages quality during all 12 months of the same calendar year.
Our company has been awarded the highest recognition on global level within the entire Coca-Cola systems twice, placing Pivara Skopje at the first position on the global ranking based on the Beverage Product Quality Index (BPQI) for the products it produces, thus confirming once more that Macedonia produces highest quality Coca-Cola drinks. In Pivara Skopje, we maintain our commitment of demonstrating the same level of dedication in the future.
At the end, I would like to summarize the answer to your question and I would say that if there was indeed a secret formula for the Coca-Cola drinks, and for the recipe for success of our company, it would be, first and foremost, its employees, their ultimate dedication, knowledge, experience and skills applied in the implementation and the managing of the state-of-the-art technology and quality standards.
Two years in a row, Pivara Skopje has been awarded the most prominent award for quality and sustainable development awarded by Coca-Cola HBC. What is the reason for it?
We are talking about an award that Coca-Cola HBC presents every year to one of the countries within this corporation in order to acknowledge the best results and achievements reached in the last 12 months, pursuant to several criteria, such as: Product quality, occupational health and safety, protection of the environment and compliance to established operational standards, which are all verified by means of independent external checks. Such checks are not necessarily announced and planned, which additionally point out to the fact the compliance to high operational standards must be sustainable at all times.
As a part of Coca-Cola HBC, Pivara Skopje has been awarded this award twice in a row in the last two years in the category covering bottling companies from 28 countries in Europe and beyond, at the same time when the global The Dow Jones Sustainability Index the ranked Coca-Cola HBC for two consecutive years at the first position in the global beverages industry. At the same time, Coca-Cola HBC has maintained its leading position among beverages producers for its efforts in reducing carbon dioxide footprint, and the ranking on the eight place on the “TOP 100 Leading Companies” list of companies forming the FTSE 100 Index on the London Stock Exchange.
The act of being ranked the highest in such a competition is a major accomplishment, and for us, it is a great honor we feel proud of, because all these international recognition serve to prove the efforts that our employees invest selfishly and lovingly in providing overall quality of our products, as well as the constant process of investing into improving social responsibility.
What are the areas Pivara Skopje invests the most in order to ensure long-term development?
All achievements I have previously mentioned are a result of the continuous process of adequate investment into implementation of new and improving of existing production processes, methods and applied technologies. Additionally, we are constantly and unconditionally investing in upgrading the skills and the knowledge of our employees, since we consider it to be one of the basic conditions for long-term development.
When it comes to sustainability, I would like to start with occupational health and safety, an area which is extremely important for our employees, but also for the increasing of the levels of efficiency and productiveness at work. Pivara Skopje is among the very first companies in Macedonia which has implemented and was successfully certified according to OHSAS 18001, a leading international occupational health and safety management system. In addition to adhering to all applicable procedures and rules, as far as ensuring and maintaining healthy and safe working environment is concerned, all year round, Pivara Skopje organizes various activities, trainings, presentations and exercises aimed at helping employees get new skills and refresh their knowledge in this very important area. The result of our commitments is the record number of days without occupational injuries.
In addition, Pivara Skopje believes that the success of any company depends greatly on offering high quality products and services, a quality that constantly meets and surpasses the demands and the expectations of both our buyers and consumers. Therefore, we think that the constant investing in maintaining and improving such quality is of fundamental importance, as are the investments in new and hand-picked sophisticated equipment, and the investments in upgrading the skills and knowledge of employees using the equipment on daily basis.
At the end, I would like to point out that as a socially responsible company, Pivara Skopje is constantly taking care of the environment and is investing constant efforts into reducing our footprint on the environment as much as possible. In addition to the application and the respect for the highest ecological standards in our production processes and the purchasing of new equipment, we also implement permanent educational program aimed at raising our employees’ ecological awareness, which includes various methods, such as trainings, communication and visualization. There are also many investments into water and energy savings. In this manner, we are trying to add to the overall efforts for protecting the natural resources and reducing global pollution. In no way I should miss to mention our recent major investment in waste-water treatment, which based on its capacity and technology applied, is the only of its kind in the country and the region.
How is Pivara Skopje sharing its knowledge and experiences with other businesses in our business environment, and how does it inspire others to follow the example it sets?
As I already mentioned, Pivara Skopje has so far invested significantly in ensuring its long-term development and it plans on maintaining such trend in the future, but, on the other hand, we think that such investments would be futile unless we operate in a healthy and stable environment. Healthy and stable communities tend to be much better business environment than those are facing constant crisis. Considering this, Pivara Skopje’s approach is based on being constantly included and invest into the community we work and try to make the lives of people in our environment better based on our existence here. Following our policy and commitment towards corporate social responsibility, our company is investing constant efforts into sharing good practices and real advantages with the community, thus helping ensure prosperity far beyond the simple offer of quality products and services on the market.
We are aware that we alone are not sufficient to achieve overall development of the community. All of us who operate in this community pursue a common goal: create positive changes in order help overcome social challenges. Joining our efforts and sharing key competencies, knowledge, and skills highly improves our odds for reaching this goal. That is why, based on partnership approach, Pivara Skopje is investing major efforts into close and long-term cooperation with the business community and the other agencies, institutions, NGOs and local leaders. We know that we can offer skills in the area of engineering and successful practices in fostering efforts for reaching sustainable development and environmental protection, and we are trying to be as transparent as we can in this area and we are ready to share our knowledge and experiences with others.
The last year, Pivara Skopje got the national award for the best practice in occupational health and safety in the category of large companies. Later on, we shared such practice with the entire business community.
Strongly believing that good habits are best acquired during childhood, Pivara Skopje has been conducting an unbranded project in primary schools aimed at education in the area of health and safety. This project includes fourth-grade pupils and consists of presentations made by Pivara Skopje’s employees. Acting as volunteers, they present to pupils topics which are of great importance to health and safety at school.
This year, in cooperation with UNIDO and the Regional Environmental Center, our company will host a section of the expert training for optimization of industrial steam systems, a programme realized within the project for encouraging market transformation for reaching energy efficiency in the industry and accelerating investments in the best practices and technologies. In this manner, our engineers’ team, along with counterparts from other companies in the presence of external experts and consultants in this area, will have an opportunity to share experiences and knowledge in our production facilities, and to indentify potential possibilities for system efficiency improvement.
In Pivara Skopje, we strongly believe that the road towards long-term success consists of doing business in responsible, transparent and ethical manner. Our company rests on those values and by transferring such values to the wider business community we want to assist the creation of a more successful community. Our overall operations are designed to ensure growth and development of our company, but always based on creating additional value for the community we belong, as the only way towards sustainable development.
