With 28,000 employees in 1,654 own stores and Partner locations in around 800 urban and rural localities, Profi is the largest private employer in Romania and an important player in the community.

This month, Profi officially introduced the Via Profi platform, the first platform that connects producers and buyers from both urban and rural areas. Since the idea was presented in the public space and until its official launch, in less than 6 months, Via Profi has gathered over 200 producers from 12 counties, and their number is continuously growing.

Local producers from all over the country felt that they have a reliable partner in Profi, and their passion, combined with the impetus that the retailer puts into every CSR initiative, has given birth to a comprehensive event that continues to resonate.

At the end of April, Profi organized the first festival dedicated to local producers, Suflet de România (Soul of Romania), at the Royal Domain of Săvârșin, a place with special historical and symbolic value for Romania. This event encourages households to connect to the community and helps the residents of this country rediscover small local producers, authentic traditions, and customs of the Romanian village.

Initiated by Profi, the Suflet de România festival is part of the tripartite agreement "Growing Communities," signed by the Association of Her Majesty's House, the University of Life Sciences "Mihai I" in Timișoara, and the Profi retail chain, with the aim of supporting local producers and preserving authentic and traditional Romanian craftsmanship. The festival is just one of the CSR initiatives through which Profi strives to be involved and put its heart into the community.

"To put heart into Romania means to feel that I am part of a larger community, to care about people and the environment, and to be able to make a positive change for that community. It means being empathetic and grateful for what we have and, essentially, contributing to the development of that community. At the same time, I feel a responsibility towards future generations and towards this country we call home.

The Suflet de România festival, which we organized in Săvârșin, was just one of the ways in which we bring local producers together and put them in the spotlight. The support provided by Profi is concrete and has a rich tradition.

For example, Profi initiated the "Shelf with Local Goodies," the most extensive program to support small artisanal local producers. The first initiative that brought together small artisanal local producers was the festival in Apoș in September 2022. Subsequently, in the same year, the program was launched in stores, starting with Cluj and Dâmbovița counties, and this year, Alba, Bistrița, Botoșani, and Suceava joined the list of places where the Shelf with Local Goodies exists. By the end of the year, the program will be active in 10 counties and will bring together over 700 products. We hold it dear to our hearts and put our soul into it, but it's not the only initiative of its kind.

In June, we officially launched Via Profi, a platform that practically unifies the country through the good taste that we want to preserve and pass on to future generations. Via Profi is a bridge between urban and rural areas, a simple tool through which anyone can find local producers with authentic flavors and, most importantly, can reach them without any intermediaries," explains Gabriela Sîrbu, Sustainability Director at Profi.

Profi continues its involvement through extensive programs dedicated to long-term development, with the Via Profi platform being the most recent initiative that supports small local producersand at the same time connects urban and rural areas.

"We're talking about an online platform - via-profi.ro - where anyone can find producers who preserve Romanian flavors and healthy ingredients from their own gardens or community gardens. With the help of an interactive map, these producers can be filtered by county or by the products they offer. Each of them has a dedicated page with well-documented and verified information by the Profi team, complete contact details, and, very importantly, real images of the products.

The Via Profi platform emerged as an idea last year, and in less than six months from the initiation of the project, it has already gathered over 200 local producers from 11 counties, making it very easy for anyone to embark on a journey of good taste throughout Romania. Moreover, over 100 of the Via Profi producers can now be found with their products in selected Profi stores, at the Shelf with Local Goodies.

We put our heart into it just like the producers we support, and with whom, very importantly, we don't sign an exclusivity agreement. We genuinely seek to support them and help them continue doing what they do best. At the same time, we help their stories reach as many people as possible. Via Profi is not just a culinary experience but also an authentic gateway to a different kind of tourism, to rediscovering beautiful Romania with its good-hearted people.

We put our heart into Romania, and we do it every day for our customers and for society as a whole. We considered it important to focus on seven strategic directions: Education, Health, Environment, Culture, Innovation, Sports, and, of course, Community.

The projects we support and believe in can easily be tracked on the interactive map at https://www.profi.ro/csr. We were delighted to meet a large audience at the Suflet de România festival because we had the opportunity to invite more partners to speak about their projects and how they, including with the help of Profi, do good every day," adds Gabriela Sîrbu, Sustainability Director at Profi.

With 28,000 employees in 1,654 own and Partner stores present in around 800 urban and rural localities, Profi is the largest private employer in Romania. PROFI SUPER, PROFI CITY, PROFI GO and PROFI LOCO, the four store formats of the network, open a range of 5,000 products appreciated by the more than 1.2 million customers who shop here every day. More than 94% of these products come from suppliers in Romania. The turnover of the network, of 11.7 billion lei, places the company in third place in Romanian retail.