P&G's Polish operations set records
The news out of Proctor & Gamble (P&G) was not just that they were plowing another $150 million into their Polish operations, but that the plants here are setting quality and productivity records within the P&G stable.
International board chairman John Pepper first came here in 1990. His meeting with General Director Jacek Dzierwa began what Pepper called "a very successful 10 years and what a 10 years it has been for Poland."
P&G started with a handful of people; now it has 500 in its diaper manufacturing plant in the Warsaw suburb of Targowek. It also has 500 elsewhere in the company and an additional 1,000 indirectly connected to P&G as suppliers.
When P&G began, its first-year turnover was $100,000. Last year, that figure was $400 million and "on a very strong growth path. Poland is extremely strong in profitability for P&G worldwide," says Jim Lafferty, in charge of operations here and in the Baltic states.
The company's $200 million investment included a greenfield factory and office complex built in the early 1990s on 19 hectares. Today, P&G occupies 30 hectares that accommodate the original headquarters, which will be recycled for other uses; the new high-tech designer office building and the diaper factory, which will expand its capacity from seven to 12 production lines. That means producing three times as many Pampers as last year, with exports doubling to 40% of production.
This wasn't on the cards back in 1990. Pepper may have targeted the huge Polish market for all sorts of consumer goods after communism. But there was nothing in 1990 that indicated this kind of massive growth.
"This is a tribute to the men and women from this plant who have been able to achieve record levels of productivity and quality," Pepper said.
The expansion will make the Warsaw plant the fourth-largest diaper production facility in P&G. The existing manufacturing facility has won very high marks for "line reliability." This is a complex yardstick that compares the output of this plant with the "ideal output" in a leading line. It also has a high-scoring record for safety on the factory floor.
The Warsaw plant exports to 19 countries including Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Caucasus "and we also expect we will source much of the Middle East from Poland," Pepper said.
It seemed to be a lovefest between Targowek Mayor Marek Kaminski and the P&G bigwigs. Pepper gave much credit to Kaminski and the local authorities for helping with the land and utility infrastructure "for expansion in a land where we are strangers." And Kaminski called P&G "a very good corporate and business citizen." The Targowek gmina "is one of the fastest growing in Poland" and has earmarked 25% of its revenue for technology and infrastructure development including zl. 200 million ($43.5 million) to be put toward infrastructure for P&G expansion.
Small wonder that there was no stir from him when Pepper, asked by a reporter about further expansion, said "we have thought about other strategic areas adjoining our facilities."
P&G sells in excess of 20 of its worldwide brands here and will introduce more in the next year. And Pepper said there will be a "re-launch" of at least three key P&G brands given short shrift earlier: Pantene, Head & Shoulders and Always.
No mention, however, of re-introducing Wash 'n Go, which had to be withdrawn from store shelves after an early brush with paranoia about the evil intent of capitalists who, it was said, were trying to sell a shampoo where your hair would literally "go" down the drain.
P&G has branched far beyond the Targowek gmina in its charitable donations. From October through December, it will earmark a percentage of sales from Pampers, Always, Head & Shoulders, Vizir and Blend-a-Med toward building a burn center facility for the Collegium Medicum in Krakow, with the money funneled through Malgorzata zak's Polsat Foundation.
"We hope we can achieve similar (funding) to last year over zl. 4 million ($1.5 million)." said PR director Malgorzata Mejer.
Last year's money helped finance the first family liver transplant program in Poland, also a Polsat Foundation project. Rather than depending on getting a liver from a donor (usually after a death), this strategy uses family members to transplant a partial liver from one member to another.
"Results here have been very encouraging," Mejer said, with two of the initial surgeries taking place with the donor being operated on at the Medical Academy in Warsaw and the recipient child in Miedzylesie Children's Hospital.
In addition, last year's donations went to build an intensive care unit in a children's hospital in Wroclaw.
