Wholesalers in trouble

Since the beginning of 2011, the number of wholesaler businesses on the Polish market has declined by 13,500 and now amounts to 194,500, according to data compiled by Bisnode Polska for Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. The decline continues this year, with more than 4,000 wholesalers disappearing from the Polish market. Experts quoted by the daily stress that the situation is the worst in the food and beverages wholesale segment. It is mostly due to price-lowering pressure from the part of discount store networks. “In order not to drop out of the market, the competition is also cutting prices. This hurts wholesalers, which have to participate in the increasingly aggressive price war,” said Kamil Szlaga from Trigon Dom Maklerski.