BSH in Poland
BSH in Poland
Home appliances from BSH have been available in Poland since 1990. Things got started with the Bosch brand products and the other brands were then launched on the market at strategic intervals.[1] To fully exploit the market potential, a plant for assembling washing machines was opened close to the Polish city of Łódź in 1994.[2] It was the first new plant to be built by BSH in Eastern Europe.[3] The company thus gained a presence in the region as a producer of large appliances, allowing it to exploit its market potential to the full.[4] The cornerstone for a new assembly plant for front-loader washing machines was laid in 1996.[5] The inauguration and start of production took place in 1998. The washing machines from Łódź were initially intended exclusively for the Eastern European markets but were also produced for EU countries from 1999.[6]
A letter from the Polish President
To mark the opening of the new washing machine plant[7] in Łódź in 1998, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski sent a letter to BSH in which he wished the company every success for a profitable business and thanked it for investing in the Polish site: “I am delighted to see a modern company open its doors particularly in this city, which has been plagued by problems of unemployment, a company that not only offers new jobs but also state-of-the-art technologies and the best innovative solutions.”[8]
Investments in Poland
Between 1996 and 1998, BSH invested 30 million deutschmarks in the construction of the assembly plant for front-loader washing machines in Łódź, thus creating 140 new jobs.[9] A logistics center was also added to the plant, with a dishwasher plant following in 2002. This was followed in 2005 by a plant for washer-dryers, which was also located in Łódź and created 500 new jobs.[10] The new development center for dryers and the Regional Contact Center (RCC) were opened in Łódź in 2007. The RCC was part of a worldwide IT concept and was responsible for receiving and handling IT queries from around 20,000 users from five European sites, including Germany.[11]
Pearl of the Polish economy
The Polish BSH subsidiary was honored again with the "Pearl of the Polish Economy" award in 2009.[12] BSH impressed in the criteria income dynamics, sales profitability, labor productivity and debt ratio. In 2013, BSH acquired the tradition-steeped Polish home appliances manufacturer Zelmer and integrated it in 2016. “Zelmer strengthens our position in Poland and in the region,” said Konrad Pokutycki, CEO of BSH Poland.[13] In its 50th anniversary year, BSH further expanded its production network in Poland and opened two new factories for ovens, fridges and freezers in Wroclaw (Breslau).
Notes
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0018, inform 1995/1, page 20.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, F-BSH-001, 40 Jahre BSH – Eine Chronik, page 97; A05-0017, inform 1994/2, page 3.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0017, inform 1994/2, page 3.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0018, inform 1995/3, page 3.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0019, inform 1996/2, page 5.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0017, 1994/2, page 3, A05-0022, 1999/2, page 13.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0021, inform 1998/1, page 12.
- ↑ The letter was printed in inform 1998/1. BSH Group Archive, A05-0021, inform 1998/1, page 12.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0019, inform 1996/4, page 28.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0027, inform 2004/3, page 4.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0030, inform 2007/2, page 7.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0032, inform 2009/1, page 10.
- ↑ BSH Group Archive, A05-0036, inform, 2013/2, from page 5.