Polish Business Survey
German retailers seek investors
German retailers Minimal will open six new stores this year at a cost of around DEM50m. They are trying to find investors who will build the stores and have talked to Echo Investment amongst others.
The first new store opened in Głogów last month. The next will be in August in Radom. Land has already been purchased in Kołobrzeg, Grudziądz, Lubin, Przemyśl, Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Kutno, Ostrołęka and Gorzów Wielkopolski. However MinimalŐs MD Roman Bugajczyk does not know which of this projects will be built this year.
According to Monika Jędrzejczak of international estate agents Healey and Baker, supermarkets will continue to grow dynamically during the next three years, especially those situated in or near housing estates. According to a Healey & Baker retail survey published earlier this year Poles are the most keen daily shoppers in Europe.
Up until now construction has largely been the concern of sister company Rewe Polska. Minimal will concentrate on the retail side of the business and give up development.
At the moment Rewe Polska is renovating certain buildings belonging to Minimal and looking for tenants to sub-let space. Construction of the Radom store is being carried out by the German Specker Bud. In Ostrów Świętokrzyski the investor is ST Projekt. They hope to find outside investors for all their projects.
Minimal is a subsidiary of Rewe which has 10,000 shops, supermarkets as well as specialised DIY, gardening and used electronics stores in Germany. Poland is the only foreign country where Minimal is present.
According to the magazine Polityka, Minimal had receipts of PLN495.6m in 1999 and was the 232nd largest company in Poland.
CODE buys metals plant
Jacek Krawiec, MD of Impexmetalu, has officially confirmed the sale of 75 percent of the shares in the Silesia metal concern in Katowice to the Kraków based CODE for PLN42m.
Jacek Kalicki, MD of STS, a daughter company of CODE, confirmed that the transaction will be finalised before the end of June. He is hoping to keep the current product line at the same time as increasing production and exports.
Silesia has around 100 hectares of land in Katowice and Siemianowice Śląski. CODE has a certain amount of experience dealing in real estate. CODE recently sold its part of PolandŐs largest condom manufacturer Unimil and used the funds for the purchase of Silesia.
Silesia is above all involved in the elaboration of zinc which it obtains from the aptly named Zinc Mill (Huta Cynku) in Miasteczka Śląski. Silesia receives around 13,000 tons of raw zinc every year. About sixty percent is earmarked for export. The remainder stays in Poland which gives it almost a monopoly position on the market. Silesia is undergoing restructuring, its workforce has been reduced by half in the past few years. In 1999 it made over PLN1m profit on a PLN100m turnover.
Carmeuse finds agreement with unions
Belgian concern Carmeuse successfully completed a long negotiating procedure with the trade unions of the Trzuskawica chemicals plant on 17 May concerning the social package that the investors are prepared to offer. The largest concern was employment which the Belgians were forced to guarantee. (A six year agreement was on offer, the unions wanted eight and the result is not yet known.) Trzuskawice, based near Kielce, is due to be privatised at the end of July.
Fiscal charges increased
New fiscal charges have been introduced for registering a business, receiving a concession and for making a request in a government office. Unfortunately most of these new charges are more expensive that they were previously.
Sale of Łódź CHP next year
In the next three years the Łodź central heating plant intends to invest PLN340m. Next year the company, which is the second largest CHP in Poland after Warsaw, will be privatised. The privatisation procedure will begin this autumn. Łodź CHP not only deals with production of heat and electricity but also the distribution of heat energy.
PKP puts out tender
On Friday the Polish State Railways, PKP, put out a tender for the supply of 1,000 goods wagons. The only potential supplier will probably be the US based Greenbrier. The value of this contract will be around PLN300m.
Energy unions against merger
Unions from the Wrocław energy plant are not too keen on the formation of a Lower Silesian Energy concern as it would mean a merger with the Turów power station, which they claim has very high energy costs. Jerzy Łaskawiec, MD of the power station does not agree. He claims that within four years a MWh from his plant will cost PLN100.