GE shapes up for expansion
GE Poland, a subsidiary of US-based General Electric, is considering boosting the size of its investment in the country at the end of the year and opening a call centre employing as many as 400 people. The company is looking to invest more cash in the country because it provides what GE considers low-cost labour, compared with western Europe, at a time when decreasing overheads is at the top of most executives' priority lists.
GE has already invested about €360 million since it opened its doors in the country in 1992, a move that has to date yielded three factories, two banks, joint ventures, sales offices and a network of distributors. By last year it was employing 4,000 nationals.
"GE is quite interested in Central Europe," said Monika Doroz, executive assistant to Lesław Kuzaj, GE national executive for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania. "Poland has a low-cost labour force."
She added, too, that the country had "quite a friendly business environment," before tempering her statement with the acknowledgement that the government does not always side with business. "Public relations with the government is sometimes difficult," she said. However, she noted, GE is still bullish about its operations in the country.
The company is considering Kraków, Wrocław or Poznań as possible sites for the call centre, which would serve GE's European operations.
Doroz said that plans for further investment in the country were only at the initial stages, and declined to reveal how much of an investment the American conglomerate would make. "We are just talking about it right now," she said. "We are thinking about it."
However, she commented that, if the investment would go through, the company would effectively be shifting existing call centres from Belgium and the UK into Poland. The consideration is part of GE's global strategy at the behest of CEO Jeff Immelt to move back-office operations, such as call centres, to countries with cheap labour. At present, the company has back-office operations in Hungary and India, two locations that have been a success.
"Last year our CEO was here for his first time," Doroz said of the successor to world-renowned former GE chief executive Jack Welch. She added that he took sharp notice of the viability of the business environment in the country, given the high number of western businesses present.
That, she said, could lead to more future investments.
Doroz declined to give financial details on GE Poland's operations.
However, the management board of GE Capital Bank, for instance, a financial subsidiary of GE Poland, predicts a two-digit sales increase for 2003 compared to last year. The bank sold credits worth €68 million (zł. 282 million) in 2002, which was 31.5% more than the year before. What is more, last year's profit, from its 1.3 million customers, is expected to be four times that of 2001.
The bank said it owes its success, especially during the country's economic slump, to its debt collection methods and accurate risk assessment.
Doroz said that GE more or less defies the country's economic hardship in all of its many businesses. "The economy is quite slow, but here in Poland for us is quite good," she commented, noting that her assertion is evidenced by its investment plans for the country.
She added that GE does not think that the country's probable accession to the EU would affect its business.
A final decision on the call centre would be made by year-end, she said.
GE has already invested about €360 million since it opened its doors in the country in 1992, a move that has to date yielded three factories, two banks, joint ventures, sales offices and a network of distributors. By last year it was employing 4,000 nationals.
"GE is quite interested in Central Europe," said Monika Doroz, executive assistant to Lesław Kuzaj, GE national executive for Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lithuania. "Poland has a low-cost labour force."
She added, too, that the country had "quite a friendly business environment," before tempering her statement with the acknowledgement that the government does not always side with business. "Public relations with the government is sometimes difficult," she said. However, she noted, GE is still bullish about its operations in the country.
The company is considering Kraków, Wrocław or Poznań as possible sites for the call centre, which would serve GE's European operations.
Doroz said that plans for further investment in the country were only at the initial stages, and declined to reveal how much of an investment the American conglomerate would make. "We are just talking about it right now," she said. "We are thinking about it."
However, she commented that, if the investment would go through, the company would effectively be shifting existing call centres from Belgium and the UK into Poland. The consideration is part of GE's global strategy at the behest of CEO Jeff Immelt to move back-office operations, such as call centres, to countries with cheap labour. At present, the company has back-office operations in Hungary and India, two locations that have been a success.
"Last year our CEO was here for his first time," Doroz said of the successor to world-renowned former GE chief executive Jack Welch. She added that he took sharp notice of the viability of the business environment in the country, given the high number of western businesses present.
That, she said, could lead to more future investments.
Doroz declined to give financial details on GE Poland's operations.
However, the management board of GE Capital Bank, for instance, a financial subsidiary of GE Poland, predicts a two-digit sales increase for 2003 compared to last year. The bank sold credits worth €68 million (zł. 282 million) in 2002, which was 31.5% more than the year before. What is more, last year's profit, from its 1.3 million customers, is expected to be four times that of 2001.
The bank said it owes its success, especially during the country's economic slump, to its debt collection methods and accurate risk assessment.
Doroz said that GE more or less defies the country's economic hardship in all of its many businesses. "The economy is quite slow, but here in Poland for us is quite good," she commented, noting that her assertion is evidenced by its investment plans for the country.
She added that GE does not think that the country's probable accession to the EU would affect its business.
A final decision on the call centre would be made by year-end, she said.
