Interview with Dr. Antoni Kostka, Foreign Trade Director of EXPANS, Poland

EXPANS, a leading importer in Poland on the way to export ! EXPANS is one of the most prestigious import and export company of fresh fruit and vegetables established in Poland. The headquarters are located in Krakow, together with the largest and most modern of their 9 branches. Expans has over 30 000 m2 of refrigerated or air-conditioned space, as well as over 50 banana ripening chambers. Dr. Antoni Kostka, Forein Trade Director, gives Fructidor his impressions about the Polish market. Fructidor : Dr. Antoni Kostka, as Foreign Trade Director, could you present your company to our readers ? Dr. Kostka : EXPANS is a Polish Import & Export company based in Krakow. Import stands for more than 90% of our activity. We started to export only two years ago. 2001 was our first season and we would like to expand in the years to come. In fact, we describe ourselves as a distribution company. "We had an incredible growth since we did specialise our activities in fresh produce" Fructidor : What volumes do you import ? Dr. Kostka : Our volumes are 170 000 tons of imported goods, that is to say, 17 to 18% of the whole imports. We're number one in the country. Together with domestic products, we handle around 260 000 tons. Fructidor : What were the different steps of the evolution of your company since its beginning ? Dr. Kostka : Expans started operating within Poland in 1988, but we really expanded in the last four years. In the 90's, the situation was quite unstable and we had different activities. We devoted ourselves exclusively to fruit and vegetables in 1995 and decided then to expand not only in Krakow, but in other cities. So now, we buy centrally and deliver our branches all over the world and most exclusively to mass retail chains. Fructidor : What is the typology of your customers ? Dr. Kostka : About 30% of our customers are mass retail chains (supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores, platforms...). The rest, that is to say 70%, are traditional retailers through selected wholesalers. This is more or less the profile of the Polish distribution in this industry. Today, 25% of the market is in hands of mass retailers. Another 75% of the market is still traditional distribution outlets. "Poland is the country where competition among the retail chains is the wildest" Fructidor : What is the position of mass retail in Poland today ? Dr. Kostka : The number of fruit and vegetables distributed by chains is increasing in a way that competition between hypermarkets is very aggressive. According to a recent study, Poland is the place in Europe where competition is the fiercest. For example, in my city Krakow, I can find four hypermarkets of more than 10 000 square metres in one street. It would be absolutely unbelivable in Germany for instance. My city has 800 000 people, the purchasing power is lower than in Germany of course, and there is four times more hypermarkets than in Hamburg ! Can you believe it ? We do not have the culture of discount stores yet, but the number of outlets per person is very high in Poland. It has something to do with our culture, our habits. Indeed, to give you an example, some people start working very early, they do not take any break and they finish at 4 or 4.30. So they have time to visit small shops, opposite to France where people can go shopping on Saturday only. So the number of visit per head is very high. As a conclusion, I would like to say that in Poland we expect mass retail to increase, but not as much as in France or Germany. That is why our company wants to work on both sides : mass retail on one hand and still traditional market places with best quality and better requirements than in supermarkets on the other hand. "We import from various countries all around the world"

Fructidor : From which countries do you import ? Dr. Kostka : We import from Greece, Turkey, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, but not from France nor Germany. Indeed, the presence of French products is very low in Poland. We also import from Argentina, South Africa and China for garlic. We have started to import coconuts from Dominican Republic too as we are now big enough to experiments new origins and new products. Fructidor : How do you explain you're not working with France ? Dr. Kostka : In fact, French people should wake up and wonder : "what can I do for my customers ?" instead of thinking French products are the best ones in the world ! They have to meet customers' needs and foresse what customers may expect tomorrow. They have to change attitude. "Polish agriculture has to be restructured" Fructidor : What do you think about the market in Poland ? What is the country' s next challenge ? Dr. Kostka : When we look at statistics, we see little import increase every year since 1997. Even if development in Poland this year is not so good, consumption is stable. We expect our trading turnover to be much higher, we hope we will import and export much more. As for Polish agriculture, it must be restructured. We shouldn't make the same mistake as in Greece 20 years ago you know. There should have organisations of producers, it is crucial for Poland ! Polish producers know how to produce and they have good products, but they should be more organised. It is important for a potential buyer to know who you can contact and talk to.

EXPANS in few figures :
Headquarters :	Krakow, Poland
Date of creation :	1988
Refrigerated or air-conditioned space :	30 000 m2
Banana ripening chambers :	50
Import :	90%
Branches :	9
Employees :	400
2001 sales figures :	Euro 150 million

Expans has been a Fructidor partner since 1996