Business

The online sports retailer, backed by the bValue fund, is set to approach PLN 500 million (EUR 105 million) in revenue after just four years. Its further growth will be significantly driven by a partnership with Nike and the guidance of one of the brand’s former top executives. Marcin Grzymkowski, the founder of Sportano, spent years courting the sports giant. “In practice, the sports industry does not exist without Nike,” he says.

Across Europe – including its home market of Germany – it is far larger than Rossmann. In Poland, however, it is only beginning to build its position, acting very much like a startup. It has already rolled out a network of more than 70 stores and plans to invest tens of millions of PLN next year in further expansion. Its approach to the Polish market has been distinctive. “We don’t want to be the biggest – only the best,” stresses Markus Trojansky, managing director of dm-drogerie markt in Poland.

"Eastern Poland is moving to the center of an important process that will clearly enhance our attractiveness,” says Konrad Fijołek, mayor of Rzeszów, in an interview with XYZ. He discusses the challenges and benefits for a city that has become a pivotal hub of cooperation between the Western world and a fighting Ukraine.

The former owner of Yodel attempted to prevent the Polish logistics company InPost from acquiring the British courier. Initially, the UK Supreme Court rejected his claims. Now, in proceedings brought by Yodel’s new management, it has emerged that the businessman used forged documents intended to support his arguments.

Philippe Meunier, vice-president of the Auvergne–Rhône-Alpes region, visited Warsaw with a delegation of 15 companies to discuss cooperation in nuclear energy and other industrial sectors. In a debate on the role of regions in Europe’s reindustrialization, the message was unequivocal: without active government involvement and protection against unfair competition, Europe will not rebuild its position.

“The two largest parts of our business – the beverage and alcohol segments – are currently facing volume declines. It will be very difficult to replicate last year’s results, even taking into account the effect of our acquisition of the Romanian company Purcari Wineries. However, my long-term goal is for the Maspex Group to achieve sustainable growth. At our scale, even modest growth from PLN 16 billion (EUR 3.8bn) in revenue represents huge sums, comparable to the size of an average independent company,” says Krzysztof Pawiński, CEO of the Maspex Group.

The prime ministers of Poland, Bulgaria, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Italy have sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, urging a more pragmatic approach to the implementation of decarbonization rules. They point to the need to move away from ideological dogmatism that undermines the competitiveness of the automotive industry

The fashion group’s valuation surged sixfold in just over a year to nearly PLN 20 billion (approx. EUR 4.6 billion), only to lose half of that in seven months. The main beneficiary was a foreign entity that shorted the stock and publicly accused the company of fraud -while everyone else took the hit. CCC still feels under attack and continues to struggle with building trust among foreign investors. “Our advisers warned us that short sellers would ‘keep tugging,’” says Łukasz Stelmach, the company’s vice president.

Almost EUR 44 billion will flow to Poland from European funds earmarked for joint defense against the Russian threat. How much of that money will reach Poland’s defense industry - and what share will go to private firms? How was the list of 139 projects submitted to Brussels assembled? What does cooperation with Ukraine look like in practice? These are the questions addressed by Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka, the government’s plenipotentiary responsible for the SAFE program, who stresses that she is “not a one-month envoy.”

Rafał Brzoska, founder and CEO of InPost, is signalling a serious push into sovereign artificial intelligence in Poland. “I am prepared to invest up to EUR 100 million (roughly PLN 480 million) of private capital in a Polish AI gigafactory,” he told XYZ.pl.