Our story begins in 1992 in our parents’ house in Baicoi. Ever since, through perseverance and steadily investment in quality and development, Phoenixy has become one of the most successful Romanian entreprenurial initiatives and the largest corn puffs producer in Romania.
In 1992, Eliodor Apostolescu and Catalin Nour, two students at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, were looking for a business idea.
With lots of creativity and energy, they’ve started with an ice-cream stand at the corner of the street and decided to further develop it in the food sector. This decision made possible the continuity of the business throughout the entire year and offered the two young entrepreneurs a great platform to experiment on.
Being a student, without any clear experience in a field of activity, they had to choose a business idea that would not pose big problems so that their experience could evolve along with the business itself. The corn puffs seemed to be a simple product to make, and so they bought an extruder from a Romanian food machine manufacturer.
In time, however, they’ve discovered that making corn puffs is an … art. And they’ve mastered this art, managing to bring Gusto Pufuleti to millions of consumers, in more than 30 countries.
Gusto is the corn puffs brand produced in Baicoi industrial unit, one of the largest plants in Europe, with over 1,000,000 corn puffs bags produced per day. The company sales its products in 32 countries, the majority of the European countries as well as the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, New Zeeland, Australia, Canada and the United States of America.
Gusto – the brand of optimism
Over the years, the promotion and communication campaigns of the Gusto brand have been appreciated and awarded both in Romanian specialty competitions, such as Romanian PR Awards, as well as international ones such as Cannes Lions.
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PHOENIXY is the company who invented the technology used to produce the famous GUSTO corn puffs. Both the extruder technology and the recipe are unique, internationally patented, and were created by the two founders of the company more than two decades ago. This development is the key to the distinctive, delicious taste and texture of Gusto Corn Puffs – its major advantage in the snack category. And they promise an instant journey to childhood, joy, and optimism!
The knowledge gained in college by the founders of the company helped them to go cross-border and open up their business to millions of customers globally.