The stereotype is fading: for Germans, we’re no longer just suppliers or a source of cheap labor. Polish companies are increasingly acquiring German businesses and bidding for innovative contracts—one firm has a strong chance to co-develop artificial intelligence for BMW.
Germany has long been the main trading partner for Polish firms and the primary direction of our expansion. Today, around 1,700 companies with Polish capital operate in the German market. And they’re operating actively—starting with finding partners in Germany, expanding distribution networks, and in recent years, acquiring German companies.
Polish acquisitions?
Examples? Nowy Styl Group acquired Rohde&Grahl, one of Europe’s fastest-growing furniture firms, for about 70 million EUR two years ago. Previously, the company founded by the Krzanowski brothers absorbed another German firm—Sato Office. This year, Pfleiderer Grajewo acquired its German parent company, and in April, Medort, manufacturer of rehabilitation equipment, bought Richter Reha Technik GmbH. Not to mention acquisitions by Comarch, Asseco, or Orlen.
Agat targets the German market
Most Poles heard of Agat from Koluszki last year, when the company won a tender to build a train washing facility for the German railway SBahn worth 4.5 million EUR. As reported by money.pl, it was a major success, but Agat had been present in Germany earlier—until now, it had only sent employees there. After winning the tender for German railways, the company decided to establish a local subsidiary.
"There, nobody asks about the capital’s origin. By registering a company in Germany, we’ll find it easier to compete for future contracts. And it will be a great springboard for further expansion in Europe," admits Zbigniew Winkiel, president of Agat.
And Agat has something to compete with: it offers automated solutions at a time when, as president Winkiel emphasizes, most trains are still cleaned with a bucket and brush.
Why?
As money.pl reports, several factors favor Polish firms. First, many German companies, especially family-owned ones, lack successors. "Companies founded during the post-reunification boom increasingly struggle with the lack of a successor willing to continue business activity," says Igor Stenzel, a lawyer at CMS.
Polish companies, often family-owned themselves, exploit this advantage over financial investors, as they can guarantee continuity of the German firm’s business model. Polish entrepreneurs also target German companies in bankruptcy.
