‘Look East for opportunities’ – self-adhesive label industry told

Poland and other Central and Eastern European newcomers to the European Union are ideal locations for companies to investigate and expand their business interests, members of FINAT, the self-adhesive label trade association, were told by experts in that region.

Cross-border partnerships could be essential to satisfy big customer needs – especially when those customers have themselves opened factories in these emerging regions.

Poland in particular outscored the other new entrants in all economic factors and was becoming a target for many companies wishing to take advantage of its low costs, highly skilled and available workforce, its good geographical position and its 40m population making a growing consumer market.

Eastern and Central Europe is providing self-adhesive label makers with great growth opportunities, with current market growth for their products at about 15 per cent. 

This prompted FINAT to take its annual Congress to Warsaw to enable participants take a closer look at the opportunities.

The Congress was told by Mr Marek Zuber, the Polish Prime Minister’s financial adviser: ‘Poland is now the most interesting country for the world. It is now at an important stage of its history. Economic growth has been led by exports but now the country recognizes while this growth is still there for us, much does now depend on the performance of other European countries, such as Germany.  But I believe we are doomed to succeed!’

The Polish Government is taking further steps to reinforce its economy with reforms to payroll and social security systems aimed at lowering costs, changing and simplifying the tax burden and intending to join the Single Currency in the not too distant future.

‘By 2009 we should be able to meet the Maastricht conditions and while the Polish Government has not yet fixed a target date, I believe we will join the Single Currency sometime between 2010 and 2012,’ he said.

Mr Bill Fawkner-Corbett, a director of M and A International, who has helped companies develop in Poland for the last ten years, said local labor costs were typically between one-quarter and one-sixth of those in Western Europe and while unemployment was falling – it was now down to about 16 per cent – there was a good pool of highly skilled workers available.

Since 1990 $84 billion of foreign investment has poured into Poland and recent surveys show that 54 per cent of those investors planned further investment in the next 12 months.

‘In 1990 many industries, such as self-adhesive labels, did not exist. Now your customers are here, manufacturing for the Polish market, and the Eastern and Western European markets, and there are major opportunities for your industry to take,’ he said.

Since Poland’s accession to the European Union last year, the Western perspective of Central and Eastern Europe had changed to become “part of us”, while the local perspective was now one of having “joined the club”. It has made a major difference to their confidence,’ Mr Fawkner-Corbett said.