Polish brands expands globally

According to the most recent study PwC, the volume of the direct foreign transactions made by Polish companies over the past year reached USD 7bn. The result demonstrates a substantial increase of USD 1.5bn, compared to the same period in 2010 with nearly 18 percent of Poland’s major businesses currently operating beyond the country’s borders. The outlook for the coming years remains positive, says Sławomir Majman, head of the Polish Agency of Information and Foreign Investments (PAIiIZ), with 61 percent of these businesses expected to expand their activity outside the country in the near future. The numbers were presented during this year’s “Polish Champion” conference. Up to 100 global companies are currently based in Poland, says Ryszard Petru of PwC, but most of their products produced are sold abroad using local brands, as the Polish brands are still not highly rated by foreign markets, he added. PwC’s Mateusz Walewski points out that Polish investment levels have shown strong resistance to the financial crisis. “In 2010 the transaction volume returned to the pre-crisis level. According to our estimates, in 2011, volume increased by 20 percent, while global investments fell by 60 percent this year to the level reached in 2007.”