OUR
STORY
ABOUT COMPANY
100% Estonian-owned, Nõo Lihatööstus is the country’s biggest and most innovative meat producer and processor, employing almost 200 people. As such, we are one of the most important employers and contributors to local life in Southern Estonia. Our delicious, high-quality products boast a high meat content and come in convenient small packs. Our products are made from chilled fresh ingredients just outside of Estonia’s second-largest city, Tartu.
Nõo Lihatööstus was founded in 1992 in the sausage factory of the former Nõo collective farm. Our first product was our legendary ‘Rulaad’ ham, which at the time we produced 100 kilos of each and every day. Now our range includes more than 400 items: raw meat, minced meat products, wieners and sausages, hams, pâtés, snacks, seasonal products and more. Surveys have shown that Nõo is a recognised and very popular brand among Estonian consumers, and catering companies also value our products. We also cater for our neighbours by exporting to countries like Latvia and Lithuania. Nõo Lihatööstus is one of the flagships of high-quality Estonian produce. (Incidentally, it was Nõo that promoted the smoked sausage as the international success story of Estonian food it has gone on to become.)
Nõo Lihatööstus was awarded the title of ‘Family Company of the Year’ in the ‘Best Estonian Companies’ competition organised by Enterprise Estonia, the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Estonian Employers’ Confederation. As such, Nõo is a major employer but shares the values and follows the standards traditionally associated with family-run companies.
Nõo Lihatööstus develops its products so as to help consumers – including young people – make healthy, balanced nutritional choices.
NÕO MEAT PRODUCTS
Nõo Lihatööstus is a perfect example of the quality you can guarantee in large-scale production if you put your heart and soul into it. This is primarily thanks to the organisational culture that has taken root in the company over the years, which is all about ensuring that our workers are proud of what they produce. All of our development has been anchored around a single word: ‘naturally’.
- NATURALLY all of the raw ingredients we use are of the best possible quality.
- NATURALLY we add nothing to our products that we would not feed our own families.
- NATURALLY our decades of dedication have seen us become masters of our craft.
Since Nõo Lihatööstus wants to be at the forefront of food culture among Estonia’s food producers, we have made it our aim to provide consumers with healthy alternatives to the kind of products they are used to. In many of our recipes we have made the switch to sea salt and reduced the overall levels of salt, sugar and fat. We make a point of using only the highest-quality meat in our products, avoiding mechanically separated offcuts. Sticking to this principle has made our products healthy thanks to their high meat (and therefore also protein) content. It has also made working with our foreign partners on product development very easy. For example, we have developed the popular ‘Fitlap.ee recommends’ range of barbecue and sliced-meat products. To ensure the best possible flavour we work with big names like chef Joel Ostrat and the BBQ Symphony collective of master-grillers, but also with food technology students, whose new ideas and genuine interest in their field have led to the development of some of our most popular products.
PRODUCTION AND EMPLOYEES
Our almost 30-year mission to enable people to buy meat products made in a natural and authentic way has required thousands of square metres of expansion in our production facilities and the recruitment of hundreds of motivated workers. All this we have done without ever compromising on the quality of our products or using mechanically separated meat, and maintaining a traditional approach to all of our recipes. The quality of Nõo’s products is guaranteed by our use of predominantly Estonian ingredients that undergo numerous checks, by our cutting-edge production facilities, by our dedicated employees and by us following best practice in production. As confirmation of all this, the company has been issued with an FSSC certificate. We consider building up and maintaining a unified team very important. We put our hearts into everything we do to bring you authentic, delicious, high-quality meat products.
NATURALLY tasty. NATURALLY healthy. NATURALLY Nõo.
