Sharjah24 – AFP: While the closure of cinemas during the pandemic has eaten into popcorn sales, demand for the microwavable form of the popular snack has reached new records, according to Europe's biggest producer.
Natais is a small family-run company nestled in the rolling hills of southwest France, with the snow-capped Pyrenees visible in the distance.
Set up by its current chief executive Michael Ehmann in 1994, the popcorn maker employs a workforce of 140 and, with annual sales of 65 million euros ($75 million), currently commands a share of nearly 40 percent of the European market.
It supplies more than 80 percent of France's cinemas, but overseas sales account for more than 90 percent of annual turnover and Natais exports to more than 50 countries, including its main markets of Britain, Romania, Germany and Spain.
At the factory's towering silos visible from miles around, fully automated production lines fill up to 300 bags of microwavable popcorn per minute, while others fill sacks -- ranging in size from 25 kilograms to 930 kilograms (55 pounds to 2,050 pounds) -- of popcorn destined for cinemas.
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