A new president and a clean start

For the first time in its history, Henkel Polska will have a Polish president. Janusz Gołębiowski takes over the company at a very convenient moment.

"In the first five months sales have increased by 18.1 percent year-to-year," he said. In 2005 Henkel Polska's sales amounted to zł.1.152 billion, which almost reflected the previous year's result of zł.1.142 billion. However, a noticeable increase was seen in the company's profits. In 2005 it earned over zł.103 million compared to zł.65.8 million in 2004. "We owe this increase to the strong złoty ... We have also used the available tax breaks," Gołębiowski said.

The president reported that all four of the company's business sectors noted a double-digit sales increase. "We are standing firmly on all four feet and we will try to continue developing dynamically," the president added. "We expect sales in Poland to grow by around 10 percent this year."

The company is the leader in the cosmetics market, with nearly 35 percent of the pie. Its portfolio includes brands such as Fa and Taft. It is the second-largest player in the detergents sector where it holds about 20 percent of the market.

Although the president was reluctant to disclose the share of each segment in the company's sales in Poland, he pointed to detergents and industrial technologies as the most rapidly developing.

Henkel Polska is satisfied with its production capacity and doesn't plan any further investments in that field.

"Our capacity is enough for both the domestic market and exports," Gołębiowski explained, adding that about 16 percent of the company's revenue comes from foreign sales.