MREIJAT, Lebanon: There’s barely a five-minute break between customers. They come in packs, spilling out of cars that pull in en route to and from the Bekaa Valley. They’re seeking labneh sandwiches to sate growling stomachs on the cross-country journey or stocking up on cheeses and preserves not sold in Beirut.
For many Lebanese, a pit stop at the Laiterie Hadwane just outside Chtaura is an essential part of any car journey between the capital and Lebanon’s east.
Georges Hadwane speaks to The Daily Star in the moments of calm snatched between serving his clientele.
He provides the history of his family business, now run by a third generation, in snippets, darting back and forth along the length of his long counter of dairy products to the cash register as required. Eventually, he agrees to continue the conversation by phone after he’s closed up for the night.
Yet, lively as the deli is, Georges says business has been slow this summer. The war in neighboring Syria and a string of security incidents in the Bekaa Valley have lessened the traffic passing his door.
“Before the crisis in Syria, it [the road] was open for all the Arab countries,” he said, describing how in addition to Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and Gulf Arabs used to stop as they drove past his door.
But it will take more than this recent slowdown to cripple the Hadwanes’ long-standing business, which managed to persevere throughout Lebanon’s own protracted Civil War.
Laiterie Hadwane’s origin dates back to 1928, when Georges’ grandfather, Isaiah, received a few goats and sheep in payment for some work he had done.
Isaiah began to milk the animals, producing cheese and yogurt as a hobby initially before starting to sell a little of his output as well, Georges explains.
There were no refrigerators at the time, so all the cheeses were preserved with salt, he adds.
Today, funnily perhaps, one of the products that customers come to Laiterie Hadwane for is an unsalted traditional Lebanese cheese, known as “baladi”; although, of course, the salted variety is still on offer.
When Georges’ father eventually joined his grandfather in producing cheese, their dairy business grew. The pair established a small two-room factory and began sending their produce by train to wholesalers in Beirut, Georges explains.
Later, when the current road between the Bekaa and Beirut was finally built, the duo “built the house [at Mreijat] and the factory under it,” he says, adding that a couple of years later they added a small store.
It was on this site, between the factory, the store and the house, that Georges and his brothers and sisters grew up. Cheese was just a part of life.
“It was not that I started making cheese by learning it,” he explains. “I grew up with it. We were living with it. We learned it through the times.”
Today, Georges and his two brothers, Sami and Joseph, run the business. Their father passed away earlier this year.
Laiterie Hadwane is famous for its halloumi cheese and labneh, but its menu also includes sheep bulgari, a sinful sounding “double cream” cheese and a snowy white array of other Lebanese cheeses. One apparently popular product is a goat labneh infused with thyme and olives – several customers went directly for this offering during the course of The Daily Star’s interrupted interview with Georges at his store.
When the Lebanese Civil War made the Bekaa Valley unsafe, Georges’ father dispatched his children to Beirut, continuing low level production at the factory by himself.
In Beirut, the brothers attended university, Georges says.
He studied computer science and marketing and promotion.
But when their studies were finished, each of the brothers chose to return to Mreijat.
Their father did not oblige them to make this decision, Georges says. “When we finished university, he gave us a choice: either to work with our diploma or to work in the factory.”
But although his computer science qualification is rarely useful in his present line of work, Georges says he uses marketing and promotion skills every day at the store. Laiterie Hadwane’s deli has become his area of expertise, he explains, while his brother Joseph specializes in the factory and Sami works between the two.
Today the focus is on quality artisanal products sold exclusively from the Bekaa store.
“We tried to enlarge our market [by selling through] ... some chains of supermarket, but they didn’t pay enough attention to the product. So now we keep it under our own control,” Georges says.
He adds that the brothers have even turned down offers to export to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, saying that for now “we are sure-footed and doing good business.”
Somehow, knowing that the thick yogurt, thin bread and fresh vegetables of a Hadwane’s labneh sandwich can only be found at this one location makes a journey interruption for the snack even more imperative.
“We only sell [directly] to customers; we don’t have middle markets,” Georges reiterates.
The Hadwanes’ range of products however goes beyond dairy. Homemade jams, preserves, pickled vegetables and dried herbs are also sold from the story.
Georges says this diversification came about naturally once his father and grandfather opened their shop.
“Old ladies [from the area] would come and ask to sell their [homemade] products,” he explains, adding that as his grandfather allowed this the demand to place products on the Hadwanes’ shelves grew.
So now the family helps local herb, jam and preserve producers, outlining the products Laiterie Hadwane wants to sell and establishing and monitoring hygiene standards that those wishing to sell in the store must adhere to, Hadwane says, adding that some jams are made in the factory itself.
The emphasis he adds is on quality. Laiterie Hadwane only produces products from top notch milk and in-season fruit. The latter is apparent from the handwritten production dates on the jam pots lining a shelf near Georges’ cash register.
Georges doesn’t know how the business will develop in the future, but he seems far from uneasy about that uncertainty. What will come later is just “another question,” he says.
Hadwane’s own children are presently aged 7, 3 and just a couple of months. Whether or not they will carry Laiterie Hadwane into the hands of a fourth generation will be entirely their own choice, he says.
“I have to teach them to go fishing and after that they will go fishing by themselves,” Hadwane says. His children will enter the family business “only if they want to.”
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
For many Lebanese, a pit stop at the Laiterie Hadwane just outside Chtaura is an essential part of any car journey between the capital and Lebanon’s east.
Georges Hadwane speaks to The Daily Star in the moments of calm snatched between serving his clientele.
He provides the history of his family business, now run by a third generation, in snippets, darting back and forth along the length of his long counter of dairy products to the cash register as required. Eventually, he agrees to continue the conversation by phone after he’s closed up for the night.
Yet, lively as the deli is, Georges says business has been slow this summer. The war in neighboring Syria and a string of security incidents in the Bekaa Valley have lessened the traffic passing his door.
“Before the crisis in Syria, it [the road] was open for all the Arab countries,” he said, describing how in addition to Lebanese, Syrians, Jordanians and Gulf Arabs used to stop as they drove past his door.
But it will take more than this recent slowdown to cripple the Hadwanes’ long-standing business, which managed to persevere throughout Lebanon’s own protracted Civil War.
Laiterie Hadwane’s origin dates back to 1928, when Georges’ grandfather, Isaiah, received a few goats and sheep in payment for some work he had done.
Isaiah began to milk the animals, producing cheese and yogurt as a hobby initially before starting to sell a little of his output as well, Georges explains.
There were no refrigerators at the time, so all the cheeses were preserved with salt, he adds.
Today, funnily perhaps, one of the products that customers come to Laiterie Hadwane for is an unsalted traditional Lebanese cheese, known as “baladi”; although, of course, the salted variety is still on offer.
When Georges’ father eventually joined his grandfather in producing cheese, their dairy business grew. The pair established a small two-room factory and began sending their produce by train to wholesalers in Beirut, Georges explains.
Later, when the current road between the Bekaa and Beirut was finally built, the duo “built the house [at Mreijat] and the factory under it,” he says, adding that a couple of years later they added a small store.
It was on this site, between the factory, the store and the house, that Georges and his brothers and sisters grew up. Cheese was just a part of life.
“It was not that I started making cheese by learning it,” he explains. “I grew up with it. We were living with it. We learned it through the times.”
Today, Georges and his two brothers, Sami and Joseph, run the business. Their father passed away earlier this year.
Laiterie Hadwane is famous for its halloumi cheese and labneh, but its menu also includes sheep bulgari, a sinful sounding “double cream” cheese and a snowy white array of other Lebanese cheeses. One apparently popular product is a goat labneh infused with thyme and olives – several customers went directly for this offering during the course of The Daily Star’s interrupted interview with Georges at his store.
When the Lebanese Civil War made the Bekaa Valley unsafe, Georges’ father dispatched his children to Beirut, continuing low level production at the factory by himself.
In Beirut, the brothers attended university, Georges says.
He studied computer science and marketing and promotion.
But when their studies were finished, each of the brothers chose to return to Mreijat.
Their father did not oblige them to make this decision, Georges says. “When we finished university, he gave us a choice: either to work with our diploma or to work in the factory.”
But although his computer science qualification is rarely useful in his present line of work, Georges says he uses marketing and promotion skills every day at the store. Laiterie Hadwane’s deli has become his area of expertise, he explains, while his brother Joseph specializes in the factory and Sami works between the two.
Today the focus is on quality artisanal products sold exclusively from the Bekaa store.
“We tried to enlarge our market [by selling through] ... some chains of supermarket, but they didn’t pay enough attention to the product. So now we keep it under our own control,” Georges says.
He adds that the brothers have even turned down offers to export to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, saying that for now “we are sure-footed and doing good business.”
Somehow, knowing that the thick yogurt, thin bread and fresh vegetables of a Hadwane’s labneh sandwich can only be found at this one location makes a journey interruption for the snack even more imperative.
“We only sell [directly] to customers; we don’t have middle markets,” Georges reiterates.
The Hadwanes’ range of products however goes beyond dairy. Homemade jams, preserves, pickled vegetables and dried herbs are also sold from the story.
Georges says this diversification came about naturally once his father and grandfather opened their shop.
“Old ladies [from the area] would come and ask to sell their [homemade] products,” he explains, adding that as his grandfather allowed this the demand to place products on the Hadwanes’ shelves grew.
So now the family helps local herb, jam and preserve producers, outlining the products Laiterie Hadwane wants to sell and establishing and monitoring hygiene standards that those wishing to sell in the store must adhere to, Hadwane says, adding that some jams are made in the factory itself.
The emphasis he adds is on quality. Laiterie Hadwane only produces products from top notch milk and in-season fruit. The latter is apparent from the handwritten production dates on the jam pots lining a shelf near Georges’ cash register.
Georges doesn’t know how the business will develop in the future, but he seems far from uneasy about that uncertainty. What will come later is just “another question,” he says.
Hadwane’s own children are presently aged 7, 3 and just a couple of months. Whether or not they will carry Laiterie Hadwane into the hands of a fourth generation will be entirely their own choice, he says.
“I have to teach them to go fishing and after that they will go fishing by themselves,” Hadwane says. His children will enter the family business “only if they want to.”
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)