Competitors accuse outdoor advertiser Stroer of unfair business practices

Leading outdoor advertising company Stroer is coming under fire from its competitors, who accuse it of unfair business practices. The most serious complaint levelled against Stroer by such industry leaders as AMS, Plakanda, Grupa Outdoor and Europlakat is that its pricing policy amounts to dumping. The cost of maintaining a single billboard is $140 a month, yet in August Stroer is planning to charge advertisers $110. According to Stroer Poland president, Janusz Malinowski, the company was forced to cut prices to a level the market was willing to pay. Another bone of contention is Stroer's failure to participate in market research. "We do not participate in such projects, since they are window-dressing," Malinowski explained. A further complaint relates to Stroer's positioning of its billboards. Its competitors complain that Stroer, by placing its billboards too close to their own, is reducing their value. Countering all the charges against his company, Malinowski says, "We have been operating in Poland for only two years. The bad image of outdoor advertising is the fault of the companies that created the market. Now the situation can only get better and that's what concerns us." (Puls Biznesu, p. 6) P.W.