From School Canteens to the European Throne: How a Czech Meatloaf Manufacturer Rewrote Its Recipe for Success

They started in the 1990s with soy dough for school canteens; today, a million pieces of meatloaf leave their Liberec plant every month for more than twenty European countries. The Czech company RAVY is a prime example of a flexible business that managed to react in time to market changes and grow into a European leader. Managing massive deliveries for multinational chains and supporting ambitious expansion, however, would not have been possible without a radical change in distribution. Read how the partnership with Raben Logistics Czech helped a traditional brand overcome logistical limits and fully open the door to new global markets.

From Rational Nutrition to the European Peak

The story of RAVY CZ a.s. began with a completely different vision, but it was precisely their ability to adapt to market changes that ultimately made them one of the European leaders in meatloaf production. When two friends started with soy-based Rational Nutrition (RAcionální VÝživa in Czech - RAVY) in 1992, few could have guessed where the company would go over the coming decades.

"We basically started from zero in 1992, two buddies who got together and plunged into the production and sale of rational nutrition," recalls Ivo Najman, Sales Director of RAVY, about the time the company supplied soy dough to school canteens.

The turning point came when concerns about the health risks of soy began to spread among customers due to television reports. 

"Suddenly, there was no business. People got scared. So we said to ourselves that we would add meat to it," Ivo Najman describes the decision that opened up completely new opportunities for the company. The first orders for the former retail chain Delvita became a stepping stone to today's broad portfolio of meat products that have found customers across Europe.

Breathtaking Numbers: A Million Pieces a Month and Tokyo as a Bonus

Today, the modern 13,000 m² Liberec plant churns out incredible volumes of food consumed by people in over 20 European countries.

"Our daily production is 38 tons of meatloaf, i.e., 70,000 pieces. We sell roughly 1 million pieces a month," Ivo Najman calculates the reality.

Moreover, European competition in this specific segment is not large, which is why RAVY has long been able to rely on stable quality, good pricing and unrivaled taste.

"The launch of the production of our traditional meatloaves in Tokyo, Japan in 2017, where we had our own manufacturing facility, was quite unique. We also supplied Vietnam, South Korea, and the Philippines from there. After the Covid pandemic, we successfully sold the business to a Japanese buyer," recounts Ivo Najman.

When Your Own Fleet Is No Longer Enough

With growing sales and changing behavior of newly emerging retail chains, which began demanding huge volumes of goods directly to their newly built central warehouses via large-capacity deliveries, the company had to radically change its approach to distribution. 

"We always had our own transport, our own small refrigerated pickups, but as we grew, this transport stopped being sufficient," explains Ivo Najman. "We even acquired six of our own large refrigerated trucks, which we kept for short-distance deliveries, but for reliable coverage of the European market, including key countries like Slovakia, Poland, or Austria, it became necessary to find a logistics professional," adds Ivo Najman.

Raben Logistics Czech: A Partner for Large Deliveries and Every New Destination

It is thanks to the close cooperation with Raben Logistics Czech that the monthly production of over 1 million pieces of chilled meatloaves now reaches all destinations on time and in the required quality. Exclusively refrigerated transport has been growing in volume throughout the entire duration of the cooperation so far.

"Our experience with the Raben team is very good, and we resolved all the challenges of our cooperation amicably right at the beginning," says Ivo Najman. He values Raben's absolute autonomy the most about the partnership: "The greatest added value of working with Raben is that they completely take over the task of sorting out every single one of our new destinations. Raben perfectly grasps our jointly set rules and strict deadlines and can accurately propose the best logistics solution."

This functional synergy is also confirmed by the other side. 

"Providing reliable chilled distribution for thousands of pallets of meat products a year across Europe requires complete harmony and mutual trust," adds Michaela Dražanová, Fresh Food Logistics Director at Raben Logistics Czech and Slovakia. "The cooperation with RAVY is a textbook example of a successful partnership for us. We highly value their professionalism, open communication, and constant desire to grow. We are proud to combine our logistics know-how with such a dynamic Czech brand and be a solid support for its further international expansion," adds Michaela Dražanová.

Ecology, Modern Trends and Expansion Plans

Behind RAVY's success is also a very flat organizational structure, where key decisions are in the hands of founders Ivo Najman and Jiří Mališka, allowing them to react lightning-fast to trends such as smaller portion sizes, new spicy flavors and a return to meat-free rolls. But RAVY also thinks about sustainability and its impact on its surroundings.

"We are also highly interested in ecology – reducing packaging weight, eliminating odors for the surroundings during the baking process, and trying to reduce the energy intensity of our operations," emphasizes Ivo Najman. With a solid and reliable logistics background, the company can confidently look into the future. "A strong future market will certainly be Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The main driver of export for us is our cooperation with the Lidl chain, which takes products for the whole of Europe. And a completely new challenge remains the expansion to the US East Coast, where Lidl also freshly operates," says Ivo Najman with pride and anticipation of further huge future potential.

The collaboration of a traditional Czech brand with a professional logistics partner shows how local recipes can be successfully delivered fresh to shelves across the entire continent.