F
Interview: Tarek Hafez Operations Director, Arabian Milling & Food Industry Volkmar Wywiol presented in Hamburg the 2016 Flour Sack award to the Egyptian company Arabian Milling & Food Industry. Public Relations v. Hoyningen-Huene spoke to the Operations Director of the mill, Tarek Hafez, about the award and his company. What significance does this prize have for your mill?
My employees and I are very proud of this award. It is a great honour to us to find our ideas and activities as an enterprise acknowledged in this way, and as part of the global milling family. We also regard this award for our flour sack as a symbol of the successful development of Arabian Milling & Food Industry.
How did you come to choose the Bengal tiger motif?
One focus of our exports is Africa. The cultures of that continent differ widely. But one feature the equatorial regions have in common is their “jungle culture”. To them, the tiger is the symbol of power and strength. The flour and its motif constitute our premium brand, for which we use exclusively high-quality Australian wheat. The tiger represents this quality.
You mentioned different cultures, what other motifs do you use? Our marketing department puts a great deal of thought into the design of our sacks. We have another 30 or 40 brands that are sold in different regions, where they are faced with strong competition. Unlike Europe, where there are numerous possibilities of B2B advertising, the only medium we have for telling the story of a product is the flour sack. It is our most important marketing and communication tool. The animal kingdom plays an important role in this context. We use other tiger motifs, a jaguar or even an American eagle. But traditional Egyptian motifs help to market our products, too.
48 | August 2017 - Milling and Grain
The Flour Sack of the Year 2016 awarded to Egyptian company Arabian Milling & Food Industry The Flour Sack of the Year 2016 shows a proud Bengal tiger whose power and strength are depicted on the premium brand of this Egyptian mill. With this award, the winner of which is chosen by an independent panel of judges, Mühlenchemie honours flour sack motifs as carriers of regional cultures.