This statement may not provide all the information necessary to carry out any kind of analysis. It holds, however, a great value from the historical point of view.
The process of Poland’s recovery after regaining the independence in 1918 meant the necessity to build the economy from scratch which gave room for aspiring entrepreneurs and businessmen. This is the time when pioneers of Polish business opened stores, factories or banks that turned out crucial for the improvement of the country’s poor condition. And in fact, many of those companies and institutions survived the incredibly turbulent century and exist to this day on. Here are some companies that started operating in 1918 or shortly after that year.
The list includes the most important institutions from that time, such as Universal Pension Fund of National Bank (PKO BP), Polish Press Agency (PAP), Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW), and Polish Radio. It also features production companies that still supply their products to the market; however, the products have changed significantly over the last century. This respectable group consists mainly of joint-stock companies, including those whose only or major shareholder is the State Treasury.
Around dozen of the listed companies, established as indigenous companies, belong nowadays to foreign owners. They are often open pension funds, such as Aviva and Nationale Nederlanden.
Several companies have not decided to disclose the ownership structure, which usually means significant shares of Polish private entrepreneurs.
Besides, any analysis that we can make based on this statement is doomed to failure. Too many changes have taken place over the last 100 years to compare the erstwhile pioneers. Although in the case of the companies from the list, the business profile was not modified, some of Poland’s oldest companies were subjects to transformation that also led to the changes in their names and signs. Therefore, the list is primarily of historical value.
This being said, it must be added that the companies listed in the table are not the oldest companies still operating in Poland. In our country we can still find several companies that were created long before the 18th century’s partition. The oldest known company is the Namysł.w Brewery established in 1538, by Kompania Piwowarska, whose history began in 1629.
