Warsaw, 12/10/2023 – IRCA Group, an international leader in chocolate, creams, fruit and high-quality food ingredients, finalizes the acquisition of ASHANTI, International School of Pastry & Culinary Arts in Poland.
The culinary school, founded in 2017, dedicated to professionals and food lovers, is based in Łódź, a city in central Poland. The school offers a wide range of trainings and workshops for pastry and culinary chefs, ice cream and bakers, bartenders, baristas, sommeliers, as well as companies. In the last 6 years, it has trained approx. 8.000 professionals with its 41 contracted trainers, amongst them international and local leading experts in the culinary world.
Education represents one of the key pillars within the ESG strategy of IRCA Group, and ASHANTI will extend the potential touchpoints in the Polish market, while continuing to operate autonomously. The school will join the other 6 Academies and studios of the IRCA Group around the world, from the United States to Europe and Asia, amongst which the flagship Academy at the Headquarters in Gallarate has provided around 60 classes to more than 1.800 professionals for a total of over 600 hours over the past year.
“The acquisition is part of our commitment to leverage on education as a key driver for our business development within our ESG strategy. People are at the heart of this strategy, and we believe that everybody should have an opportunity to learn and the chance to become a chef” – said Massimo Garavaglia, CEO of IRCA Group. “ASHANTI is the perfect partner to reach our goals in education. On top of that, IRCA plans to open an office in Łódź to better serve our clients whilst ensuring great attention to our social impact.”
The ASHANTI school offers a unique opportunity to talented people in Poland, who could be excellent professionals, but do not have the opportunity to train abroad. Through the school, Polish chefs can join the leaders of culinary arts, with outstanding training at the highest theoretical and practical level.
“Our mission of is to pass the world of culinary knowledge to Polish professionals and amateurs who would like to improve their skills”, said Małgorzata Michalska, President of ASHANTI - “We believe that with proper courses our students will have more than just proven recipes. They will also gain the know-how to create their own ones, achieve top class work standards and develop an ability to lead and collaborate effectively within teams.“
About IRCA Group
The IRCA Group is an international leader in chocolate, creams, and high-quality ingredients. With a solid history of over 100 years in the sector, the Group has its headquarters in Italy (Gallarate) and a strong global footprint with 22 production sites and over 2.000 employees in Europe, the United States and Vietnam. Through its brands IRCA, Dobla, JoyGelato, Ravifruit and Cesarin, the IRCA Group offers an unparalleled "one-stop shop" approach for delivering quality solutions for all ingredients needs, through a broad range of innovative products.
About Ashanti
Ashanti is a Polish leading pastry & culinary school based in Łódź, central Poland. The school, with its premium location at 500 sq meters, consists of 3 independent labs: one dedicated to Pastry & Bakery, the second to ice creams, bartenders and baristas and the third to Culinary & bakery. It also contains a space of 160 sq meters dedicated to demonstration activities and contests. The Ashanti Throne, a souvenir brought back from a trip to Ghana, a country that is one of the world's largest producers of cocoa beans, became the inspiration for the school's name and logo.
