We’d like to tell you about our legendary plant – Moscow Flour Combine No. 3 – and its main product, flour.
The history of the plant started in the middle of the Great Patriotic War (Second World War). To build the mill, components of the Leningrad Flour Combine were removed and taken to Moscow from the besieged Leningrad across the frozen Lake Ladoga on the “Road of Life”. Immediately upon arrival the components were reassembled in a former warehouse of the GUM department store. The flour combine produced its first tonnes of flour on 20 December 1944, operating under the name “Moscow Mill Works No. 3”. How was it possible to erect the mill and take it into operation so quickly? It was thanks to the unique expertise of the construction managers and the exceptional commitment and dedication of the workers, and most of all because everyone knew that the mill would supply flour, and flour means bread, and bread means life!
The Team of Moscow Flour Combine No. 3
In the years that followed the mill built new silos, a bulk flour warehouse, a waste handling section, a machine workshop and an administration building. In 1949 the plant was renamed the Moscow Flour Combine No. 3.
The development focus was on plant modernization, and improving the milling preparation and milling processes. By the eighties the plant had become one of the largest milling operations in the country. What did flour mean for the employees of that generation? It meant meeting and exceeding the five-year plans, national recognition with the Order of Lenin for outstanding performance, victory in the socialist competition of factories under the Ministry for Bread and Baked Goods of the USSR and Russian Federation. Flour meant multi-family house construction for the employees, holidays at sanatoria and recreation homes for the staff, and pioneer camps for their children. Flour meant stability and a secure future.
The motto “Tradition and Quality” guided the combine’s strategy.
Today Flour Combine No. 3 is a modern, fast-growing company and leading flour producer, supplying a wide range of durum and soft wheat flours for pasta, bread and baked goods, and flour mixes for pancakes and other uses. The production plant is outfitted with modern equipment from leading international manufacturers. Four automatic flour packaging lines and an automated stacking system fill products into many different kinds of packages almost entirely without manual work. Thanks to a fleet of modern vehicles, the company can supply products to every part of the country at any time.
For us, flour isn’t just a business, but a creative process. Our mill laboratory, which is equipped with the latest technology, tests each incoming grain batch, and determines the product quality and dough rheology for each mill and flour mix. This has contributed greatly to our customer base, because we can cover demand for flours for different applications.
To us, flour is also a guarantee of food safety through the introduction of a quality management system to meet the ISO 9001 and FSSC 22000 standards.
Flour means many high honours that we have received in Russian and international competitions and trade fairs for foods; multiple wins of “Russia’s Best Mill”, certificates from our customers “For long-lasting partner relationships”, letters of recognition from the Moscow mayor and the President of the Russian Federation.
Today, a team of highly qualified specialists works at the combine, for whom flour is not just a product that they make, but the continuation of a 75-year tradition on the one hand, and on the other hand a passion, the search for new solutions and technologies to extend the product range, and the search for new markets.
From the experience of our company development we understand that the wonderful energy of the grain unites us all; its power draws us in and doesn’t let us go for many years.