BREAD BEYOND BORDERS
BREAD BEYOND BORDERS
PROJECT
DIRECTED BY: ADEL
MHIRI
There are few products in the world as universal as bread, and few that feel as personal. It sits at the centre of daily routines, family tables and national identity. It carries culture, memory and habit in a way few food categories can. In Egypt, where bread has always held deep social and cultural meaning, the bakery sector is now entering a new industrial era.
At the heart of that transformation is Modern Bakeries, the company behind Rich Bake and one of Egypt’s most established industrial bakery businesses. Founded in 1997, Rich Bake was the first industrial packaged bakery company in Egypt, pioneering a category that would go on to reshape consumer habits across the country. Its introduction of packaged toast bread was not simply a product launch; it marked the beginning of a new chapter for Egypt’s packaged bakery market.
Today, Rich Bake is writing another chapter.
Under the leadership of CEO Gilbert Hobeika, who joined the business in early 2023, the company has moved through one of the most challenging periods in its history and emerged with renewed momentum. When Hobeika arrived, the business was under serious pressure. The after-effects of the pandemic, the disruption caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the strain placed on global wheat supply chains had created an extremely difficult operating environment for the bakery industry.
“The shareholders of Rich Bake appointed me as CEO to do a turnaround in the company because the company had been passing through difficult situations,” Hobeika says. “My role was to put the company back on track, save it from possible bankruptcy and move onward.”
MODERN BAKERIES
CEO Gilbert Hobeika
That turnaround has become one of the defining stories of Rich Bake’s recent history. In just two years, the company has returned to profitability, accelerated growth and invested more than $20 million into equipment, automation and production capabilities. In 2025, the business recorded growth of 33 per cent, with current growth now operating above 40 per cent.
The scale of that recovery reflects more than a rebound. It reflects a carefully engineered operational strategy built around consistency, efficiency and trust.
For Rich Bake, consistency is the foundation of the business. In food manufacturing, a customer’s expectation is shaped by repetition. The product cannot simply be good once; it must be the same every time. Rich Bake has responded by investing in highly automated production lines from leading global suppliers including AMF and Middleby, enabling the company to deliver precision at scale while improving efficiency across its manufacturing network.
“In the food industry, the most important thing is consistency,” Hobeika says. “Whatever is your quality, the consumer every time he gets your product has to feel the same product.”
That discipline has also helped Rich Bake strengthen its position as a trusted supplier to major multinational quick service restaurant brands. Today, the company supplies names including McDonald’s, Burger King and Americana across Egypt and surrounding territories, with exports reaching markets such as Iraq and Morocco.
Those partnerships have done more than support revenue growth. They have sharpened Rich Bake’s internal standards, exposing the company to rigorous auditing, service expectations and performance controls. For Hobeika, that scrutiny has helped elevate the business.
MODERN BAKERIES
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
“The experience of those big multinationals affected our quality of service and our performance in the company,” he says. “We have always been in the eyes of auditing and checking performance, so this gave us a learning cycle that helped us stay ahead of the market in terms of quality, consistency and productivity.”
While operational recovery has been central to Rich Bake’s recent success, one of the most important shifts has come through innovation. As consumer attitudes around food, health and nutrition continue to evolve, the company has moved to rethink what bread can represent in a modern diet.
For years, bread was often viewed negatively within dieting culture. Rich Bake saw an opportunity to challenge that perception. Working closely with the Dieticians Association in Egypt, the company began developing products
• Specialized: Production Lines for Toast Bread, Hamburger Buns, English Muffins & Co.
• All-in-One: From initial planning and sales to turnkey installation
• International: Proven quality in use across Europe and the Middle East. solutions for your success.
Sabitech: A Leader in Industrial Bakery Equipment Solutions
Sabitech has been shaping industrial bakery production Through engineering expertise, innovation, and advanced manufacturing solutions developed in Lebanon and trusted by bakeries worldwide.. From traditional Lebanese bread to gluten-free and specialty bakery products, the company delivers reliable production systems designed to meet the evolving needs of modern bakeries.
With a strong focus on fully automated production lines, Sabitech designs and manufactures solutions that combine durability, efficiency, and flexibility throughout every stage of production. Each system is developed to support consistent product quality, optimize operational performance, and adapt to different production requirements and scales.
What began as a vision to provide dependable bakery equipment has evolved into a trusted partner serving clients across global markets, supporting bakeries with customized production solutions built around their operational needs. Today, Sabitech continues to invest in advanced manufacturing technologies and practical engineering approaches that help producers improve consistency, increase efficiency, and respond to growing market demands, including the rising demand for gluten-free and sugar-free bakery products.
Every production line reflects Sabitech’s commitment to quality, long-term reliability, and customerfocused innovation.
Whatever the bakery need, Sabitech builds the solution. www.Sabitech.com
FOOD AND BEVERAGE MODERN BAKERIES
designed around changing expectations for sugar, fibre, protein and digestion. The result has been a growing portfolio of healthier bakery products, including low-carb bread, no-sugar toast and protein-focused alternatives.
“What we managed during my presence in the company is to move the company into innovation and create innovative products to cope with the changes in the market and the demand,” Hobeika says.
That strategy has already gained recognition. Rich Bake’s no-sugar toast received a Best Innovation award in 2023 from Egypt’s Ministry of Industry in cooperation with international associations, strengthening the company’s position within Egypt’s healthier bakery category.
“We like to be known as the innovative bread business in Egypt,” Hobeika says.
Innovation at Rich Bake is not limited to healthier recipes. The company is rapidly expanding the breadth of its portfolio, adding more than 24 SKUs each year and moving into cakes, sandwiches, breaded products and wider bakery categories. Its next wave of development will take the business even further, with the launch of biscuits and rice cake products signalling a broader expansion beyond traditional bakery.
This willingness to diversify is closely connected to Rich Bake’s ambitions beyond Egypt. Export growth has become a major strategic priority, although bakery products have historically been difficult to scale internationally due to shelf life limitations and transport requirements. Rich Bake has approached that challenge from two directions: developing long-shelflife packaged products for retail markets and frozen supply chains for quick service restaurant clients.
One of the company’s most ambitious export achievements has been the adaptation of Egypt’s traditional baladi bread for international markets. Rich Bake developed a version with an 18-month shelf life, making it possible to export a culturally iconic Egyptian
staple into Europe, Canada and the United States.
“It became like an Egyptian pride to have the product reaching those markets,” Hobeika says.
The company’s international footprint now reaches across the MENA region, Europe and North America, with products sold in markets including Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Germany, the UK, Canada and the United States. Yet even as its export profile grows, Rich Bake remains firmly committed to Egypt as its manufacturing base.
“We still believe that Egypt is a low-cost and good place for manufacturing,” Hobeika says. “Our strategy is to grow our capabilities within Egypt and export more outside.”
That belief is shaping the company’s next major phase of investment. Rich
Bake has acquired land and is finalising approvals for a new highly automated manufacturing facility, expected to become operational between 2028 and 2029. The site is projected to triple production capacity and could represent an investment approaching $100 million.
The journey to this point has not been simple. Much of the company’s recent growth has been self-funded. During the early stages of the turnaround, banks were hesitant to support the business, forcing Rich Bake to rely on operational optimisation, supplier confidence and internal cash flow to continue investing.
“We had to survive by ourselves,” Hobeika says. “When you prove yourself that you can sustain and grow, then you can have the biggest push to grow further.”
As the company stabilised and growth accelerated, financial institutions began to return. Today, Rich Bake is actively
FOOD AND BEVERAGE MODERN BAKERIES
engaging with banks and strategic partners to support its next phase of expansion.
Alongside production growth and export ambition, the company is also embedding broader ESG initiatives across the business. Rich Bake has introduced women into its production lines for the first time, partnered with technical schools across Egypt to support workforce education, and launched sustainability initiatives focused on solar energy, water reuse and carbon reduction.
These initiatives reflect a wider philosophy within the organisation. For Rich Bake, growth is not only about producing more. It is about building a stronger industrial platform, supporting local communities, developing future talent and creating a business capable of long-term resilience.
For Business Enquirer, Rich Bake represents more than a bakery success
story. It reflects the intersection of resilience, innovation and industrial transformation within one of the region’s most strategically important food sectors. In an industry often shaped by pressure, volatility and tight margins, the company has turned adversity into momentum while positioning itself for substantial longterm expansion.
And at the centre of that story is a product as old as civilisation itself.
Bread may be one of the world’s most familiar foods, but Rich Bake’s journey proves that even the most traditional industries still have room for reinvention. From Egypt’s daily tables to international markets, the company is taking a product rooted in heritage and giving it a future beyond borders.
www.richbake.com