The best Polish companies

Have a look at the branches in which the best Polish companies specialise. Nowadays, Polish companies are present in various places across the world.

Thousands of Polish companies are doing their best to make Poland perceived to be a dynamically developing country, offering an improving business environment, and with business visionaries having a bent for entrepreneurship.

The largest Polish companies

Every year, the French insurance company COFACE publishes the TOP 500 ranking, which is dedicated to the largest companies in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2015, as many as 176 companies from Poland were ranked in the TOP 500 (with Hungary coming second with 70 companies). There is no doubt that the best Polish companies are the leaders in the region – as many as five of the first ten positions are occupied by Polish business.

The first in the ranking comes PKN Orlen, an oil concern operating in the Czech Republic, Germany, and in the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Another leading-edge company is Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG). The company searches for and exploits oil and gas deposits on the Norwegian continental shelf, and it also operates in Pakistan. Highly ranked is also another oil magnate, i.e. Grupa Lotos.

The best Polish companies in the food industry

The Polish producers from the food sector have been making investments abroad for a long time now. The Maspex company, which is the manufacturer of, among other products, Kubuś and Tymbark juices, has already taken over Walmark, the leading company on the Czech and Slovakian beverage market, the Hungarian Plusssz, which is the producer of effervescent vitamin preparations, and the vice-leader of the juice market, Olympos, as well as the Bulgarian juice manufacturer, Queen’s. Mlekovita, a dairy located in north-eastern Poland, exports its products to the largest European markets (to Germany, Great Britain and Italy) and to 60 countries outside the European Union, including China.

The best Polish companies in the clothing and footwear industries

The unquestioned leader in this field is Reserved, a clothing chain managed by the company LPP S.A. It owns nearly 150 Reserved stores in Poland, which are located in the most frequently visited areas of big cities. The company has commenced its international expansion, and, currently, it has 97 stores outside Poland. Reserved operates in Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary, Russia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Egypt and Qatar. A new Reserved store will be soon opened on Oxford Street, the major artery in London. The footwear industry, in turn, is dominated by CCC, which sells 32 million pairs of shoes a year. CCC owns the largest shoe factory in Europe which is located in Polkowice (it manufactures all the Lasocki-brand shoes). The company is planning to open 378 stores in 11 countries in Central Europe and 122 stores in Germany and Austria by 2017.

The biggest investments abroad made by Polish companies

Ranked just below the first ten of the COFACE TOP 500 companies was KGHM Polska Miedź. The company has commenced the largest Polish project abroad in history, i.e. a copper mine in Chile for 4 billion dollars. The Rovese Group which is the producer of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware products, has implemented the largest Polish investment project in Russia – recently, it has commenced production in the Kuchino Ceramic Plant in Zheleznodorozhny. Lately, very active has been Pesa from Bydgoszcz (northern Poland) which has been receiving orders from all over Europe. Outside Poland, Pesa trams are used in Russia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Currently, the company is processing an order for 120 vehicles placed by Moscow. Other types of companies performing well internationally are pharmaceutical companies. Polpharma from Starogard Gdański (north-west Poland) has taken over the Russian Akrikhin, the Turkish Cenovapharma and the Kazakh company Chimpharm.

Polish business in Africa

The best Polish companies have been intensely watching the growing economy of Africa countries. For example, Grupa Azoty Zakłady Chemiczne Police has acquired 55% of the shares in the company African Investment Group for nearly 29 million dollars, and thus has accessed the Senegalese phosphorite deposits. The largest Polish investor in Africa is Kulczyk Investments, which has been running twenty exploratory and mining projects, e.g. in Tunisia, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. Through the company Serinus Energy, Kulczyk Investments also searches for and mines raw materials in Ukraine and Romania. The company also operates in Afghanistan.

As can be seen, the best Polish companies are present in numerous industries in every place in the world.

Photo: tec_estromberg | Title: “Group of happy business people clapping their hands” | License: CC-BY 2.0