Gabriela Bereș to Bring Puratos’ CEE Perspective to World Bakers Summit 2026
Gabriela Bereș, Managing Director for Central & Eastern Europe at Puratos, will join the speaker line-up at World Bakers Summit 2026, bringing a regional perspective on innovation, changing customer expectations and the evolution of the bakery and patisserie industry.
Taking place from September 15 to 17 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bucharest, the first edition of World Bakers Summit will bring together bakery manufacturers, retailers, hospitality operators, ingredient suppliers and technology providers from across Central and Eastern Europe.
Bereș leads Puratos’ business across 15 countries in the region, following a career that has seen her develop the company’s Romanian operations and expand her responsibilities across CEE. Her work has combined business development with a strong focus on innovation, customer needs, sustainability and long-term investment in the industry.
Her participation comes at a particularly interesting moment for both Puratos and the wider baking sector. Manufacturers are being asked to respond simultaneously to changing consumer expectations, pressure on costs and resources, demands for simpler product formulations and growing scrutiny of the environmental and social impact of food production. Ingredient suppliers increasingly have a role that extends beyond supplying individual products, working alongside manufacturers on formulation, process performance, product development and the translation of consumer trends into commercially viable bakery concepts.
This is an area in which Puratos has built a broad international presence. The Belgian group develops ingredients and solutions for bakery, patisserie and chocolate, serving customers ranging from artisan businesses to industrial manufacturers, retailers and foodservice companies. Its portfolio combines bakery ingredients with patisserie solutions, fillings, chocolate, fermentation technologies and products designed around areas including health and well-being, plant-based formulation and sustainability.
In Romania, Puratos has been present for around three decades and has developed a local operation that today includes production, R&D, logistics and technical support. The company operates a production site in Tunari and Innovation Centers in Bucharest and Cluj, where products and ingredients can be tested and adapted for different applications and customer requirements.
This combination of international research and local market knowledge is particularly relevant to the Central and Eastern European bakery industry, where producers must often balance global consumer trends with very specific local tastes, price expectations and retail structures. Puratos has repeatedly highlighted the importance of working with bakers, pastry producers and industrial manufacturers to translate those trends into products that can perform both technically and commercially.
Sustainability is another part of that equation. Puratos has incorporated areas such as energy efficiency, waste reduction, responsible sourcing and plant-based solutions into its wider strategy, while initiatives such as Cacao-Trace address sustainability further upstream in the ingredient supply chain. In Romania, the company has also invested in professional education through the Bakery School program, an initiative developed with her direct involvement and designed to help prepare a new generation of bakers, pastry chefs and confectionery professionals.
The scale of Puratos’ ambitions has also been underlined by its proposed acquisition of Dawn Foods. In March, the two family-owned companies announced a definitive agreement under which Puratos intends to acquire Dawn Foods, subject to regulatory approvals. The planned transaction would bring together complementary expertise in professional bakery, with Dawn Foods contributing a particularly strong position in sweet baked goods and ingredient solutions for products including donuts, muffins, cookies and brownies.
Against this background, Bereș’ contribution to World Bakers Summit will offer an opportunity to look at how a major ingredient company approaches innovation and long-term development across a diverse group of markets. Her session will touch on the relationship between product innovation, evolving expectations around cleaner labels and sustainability, and the practical realities facing bakery and patisserie manufacturers as they develop the next generation of products.
Further details of the session will be announced as the Summit program is finalized.
World Bakers Summit takes place on September 15–17, 2026, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bucharest. Participants can explore the agenda, confirmed speakers and registration options at worldbakerssummit.com.
Organized by World Bakers, powered by European Baker & Biscuit and World Bakers Digital, and supported by Progresiv, Trends HRB and Frozen Food Europe, the event is also backed by an expanding group of industry partners, including Grupo Bimbo as Main Partner; Pakmaya, Lantmännen Unibake and Puratos as Platinum Partners; Nutella as Gold Partner; 5 to go as Coffee Partner; AD Production as Solutions Partner; the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, the Hellenic Romanian Bilateral Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Slovak Exporters as Community Partners; and Arta Albă and All Retail as Media Partners.
