If it’s time to broaden the horizons of your business and expand your customer base, it is well worth considering export to Poland.
Now Is the Time
The UK Government Department for International Trade flags it up as the one of the fastest growing economies in the EU and identifies it as the ideal springboard into the wider Eastern European market. It is the ideal time for UK companies to establish a foothold ahead of the competition, but it’s not virgin territory: Glaxo SmithKline, AVIVA Plc, BP, Shell Overseas Holdings Ltd, HSBC, BUPA, and Unilever already export to Poland. In fact, Poland is Tesco’s largest Central European market, with over 440 stores and nearly 30,000 employees, serving more than 5 million customers per week.
The Healthy Option
The country has shot to no. 25 out of 229 countries by GDP, following political liberalisation in 1989. Western goods and services, formerly unavailable, became highly desirable and the economy rocketed. This market now offers over 38 million domestic consumers, and is investing billions of EU-funded Euros in energy, transport and other infrastructure.
The Polish economy famously emerged healthy & unscathed from the recession, which crippled every other EU country’s GDP.
Go to Your Comfort Zone.
Poland has a highly-educated population and English is in widespread use as the business language. Of course, the high number of Poles who have lived, studied and worked in Britain create a comfort zone for UK companies looking to export to Poland.
The World Bank’s Doing Business 2017 report ranks Poland at 24th out of 190 countries for ease of doing business, performing exceptionally well in the “Trading Across Borders” category.
And Further Afield
As a member of the Schengen zone on the trans-European road network, Poland offers access to 250 million consumers within a radius of 1,000 kilometres, including the markets of Latvia and Estonia. The country is bordered by Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Lithuania, Russian Territories and Byelorussia.
Your Customers Are Waiting
A report by ING found that demand for imports from Western Europe is growing steadily and set to continue towards establishing Poland as 26th on the global list of largest importers. Products in demand include chemicals, fuels, office telecom & electrical equipment, but numerous possibilities exist for exploitation. In particular, luxury and prestige-brand goods, previously unavailable, are still prize commodities to export to Poland for the fast-growing middle-class consumer base.
Next Steps
So, what’s your next step? Polish Business Link offers advice and runs business networking events and seminars in English with expert Polish and British business speakers, diplomats and politicians. In addition, their members’ website is a treasure trove of resources, links and technical information about all aspects of Polish/British business, especially export to Poland.
Source: BPCC
