The history of the Bykhiv Production Site of JSC “Domochay” dates back to the postwar year 1946. Over eight decades, generations of craftsmen have changed, technical equipment has been updated, and the assortment has expanded, but the main task has remained unchanged — to provide the city and district residents with fresh, natural bakery products every day. What the local enterprise looks like today is covered in our article.

A furnace with character and the secret of the “brick”

Today, two production lines operate successfully on the site, each addressing its own tasks. The first is unique in its kind: it specializes in producing rye‑wheat shaped loaves that customers affectionately call simply “bricks.” Among them are the rye‑wheat loaves “Mogilevsky” and “Kadinsky,” familiar to every district resident.

The main feature of this line lies in its heart — a massive oven lined with red brick. Its design and operating principle fully replicate a traditional village oven: the equipment can accumulate and maintain working temperature for up to ten days.

“In our famous “brick,” there are absolutely no artificial additives, preservatives, or enhancers — only flour, liquid starter, yeast, salt, and a bakery blend. Proper handling and maturation of the liquid starter is a delicate biological process that directly determines the porosity, aroma, and flavor of the future bread. Today, this traditional rye‑wheat loaf accounts for more than 75 % of our total production volume, confirming that customers vote for naturalness,” explains the production site manager Marina Akulina.

The second technological line is equipped with three modern rotary ovens. Here they bake bulk rye‑wheat and shaped wheat loaves, toast products (“Utrenniy”), baguettes (“Braslavsky,” “Mogilevsky”), baguettes, and a variety of small‑batch bakery items — from onion rolls to sweet buns “Sakharniy Zavitok” and “Izumitelnyy.” The assortment is regularly updated to meet customer demand.

End‑to‑end

Specialists in the factory laboratory meticulously examine every batch of incoming flour and auxiliary materials to ensure compliance with technical regulatory documents. Technologists keep an equally close eye on the processes inside the workshop: they monitor the temperature of the water, the acidity of the starters, the elasticity of the dough, and strictly enforce the proofing time for test batches and the temperature regimes for baking.

At the exit from the oven, organoleptic characteristics are evaluated: correct shape, crust color, degree of baking, and crumb condition. Natural bread without chemical preservatives has a short shelf life by definition, but it is precisely this honest recipe that consumers appreciate. By the way, staff must meet even stricter sanitary requirements—from mandatory medical examinations to wearing special clothing.

The main capital—people

Behind every fragrant loaf on the shelf stands a coordinated, round‑the‑clock effort of a team of 36 people. A third of them are dedicated masters whose tenure at the enterprise ranges from 15 to 30 years. They carefully pass on accumulated experience to younger colleagues, and the factory actively promotes training in related professions.

The technological chain consists of many unnoticed but critically important links. Some employees are responsible for sifting and the continuous supply of flour, others—starter bakers—monitor the maturation of the bread base, and a third group controls baking and carefully places finished products.

Modernization with a social mission

Preserving the traditional taste in the Bykovsky area is successfully combined with technological progress. Recently, a planned upgrade of capacities was carried out: obsolete units were dismantled and a high‑performance electric rotary oven MONS was put into operation, as well as a modern proofing cabinet Kosmika CLR‑8.

Today the company's products perform an important state task of ensuring the food security of the district. Bykovsky bread is delivered daily to all local educational, health, and other budgetary organizations.

Marina Akulina, head of the production section, emphasizes: "Technical re-equipment is not just a tribute to the times or an effort to ease manual labor; it is a guarantee of consistently high quality of our products. We bear a huge social responsibility, as our bread goes to kindergartens, schools, and hospitals in the city and the district. We understand that we are feeding our compatriots, our own children, which is why we uphold our reputation. In updating our equipment, we do not deviate a single step from classic bread-baking technologies, preserving that very native taste trusted by generations of Bykhov residents."