ISRAEL

k

Sweet
Success

A giant Israeli food
manufacturer has diversified
into many product lines. But
its name will always stir
visions of chocolate.

CAROL NOVIS

Special to The Jewish News

erusalem — Each week,
schoolchildren eagerly
gather at the doors of a
factory on a busy street corner
in Ramat Aviv, waiting for
their guided tour to begin.
School trips are always
popular among Israeli school-
children, but this one is par-
ticularly long-awaited. The
reason is no surprise: the tour
will take the children around
the Elite chocolate factory,
where they can see and taste
their favorite candy bars.
It is hardly a wonder that
Elite has become a household
word among generations of
sweet-loving Israeli children.
What is less expected, per-
haps, is that the firm has
become increasingly well-
known around the world.
Exports have been providing
an increasing part of the
firm's profitability in recent
years. In the past two years,
Elite has opened new
marketing offices in England
and the United States, and
the results have been
remarkable. Elite Groups' ex-
ports totalled $17.4 million in
1989, compared to $17 million
the year before. Total sales
reached $196.4 million, with
an after-tax profit of $10
million.
Healthy growth was achiev-
ed in spite of a number of dif-
ficult economic and trading
conditions. For instance, Elite
has had greater competition
in recent years. When the Is-
raeli government removed
duties, taxes and other import
restrictions on sweets, imports
soared. At the same time, raw
materials and packaging
imported by Elite were still
subject to taxes and duties.
Elite has also faced increas-
ed competition from other
Israeli manufacturers. Osem,

j

for example, another food-
manufacturing giant, has
recently started producing a
new line of wafers, which has
been a traditional Elite pro-
duct. Some observers have
even referred to a "wafer-war"
between the two.
Another negative factor af-
fecting profitability was the
price of coffee. One of Elite's
major products, it recently
went down in price by about
20 percent. But in spite of
these difficulties, Elite
managed to show a sweet pro-
fit, as it has been doing for
many of its 57 years of
operation.
Elite was established in
1933 by a group of eight en-
trepreneurs, some of whom
had been partners in a candy
manufacturing plant in Lat-
via. Under its first director
general, Eliahu Fromchenko,
the firm started business in
Ramat Gan, where it still re-
mains, with an original in-
vestment of 8,000 Palestine
pounds.
The firm did well from the
beginning. Within four years,
Elite was exporting to the
United States, South Africa
and Great Britain. During
World War II, the company
supplied sweets to the Allied
armies in the region, and the
increased population after the
war, due to large scale im-
migration, led to an increased
demand for Elite products.
Gradually, the number of
products grew. In 1940, Elite
established the Priman sub-
sidiary for the manufacture of
jams, marmalades and
preserves, later adding citrus
fruit juices and concentrates.
Fourteen years later, Elite
went into the coffee business,
becoming the first Israeli
manufacturer of instant coffee,

A worker packs Elite chocolates in Ramat Gan.

using American know-how in-
itially. Today Elite produces
ground roast coffee, Turkish,
various blends of instant,
freeze dried, agglomerated,
filter (including coffee produc-
ed under license from Rom-
bouts, Belgium) and decaf-
feinated, produced under
license from General Foods.
The firm is highly diver-
sified these days. Elite also
produces cocoa, candies,
novelties, cakes, chewing gum,
drink mixes, wafers, halva,
and sesame and peanut pro-
ducts. The company also pro-
duces popular international

brands under license in Israel,
including Bazooka bubble
gum (lbpps USA) and Camille
Bloch and Maestrani, the
Swiss chocolate bars. In all,
nearly 500 different Elite pro-
ducts fill supermarket shelves
in Israel and in 30 countries
on five continents.
Originally located solely in
Ramat Gan, the firm now has
eight plants all over Israel,
providing much needed
employment to residents of
such development towns as
Nazareth and Ashkelon,
whose plants produce confec-
tionary; Safed and Beit

Shemesh, where coffee is pro-
cessed and packaged; and Lod,
whose plant produces cocoa,
drink mixes and coffee. The
Shachal plant in Safed pro-
duces sesame and halva pro-
ducts, while the plant in
Netanya produces peanut
snacks. In all, Elite employs
2,200 workers around Israel.
In keeping with its policy of
community responsibility,
Elite has funded the construc-
tion of a modern community
and cultural center in one
of Israel's disadvantaged
districts and a sports complex
at Tel Aviv University. l

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

45

