“Made in Poland” offers guidance to international manufacturing sector companies that wish to establish a presence in Poland and gives an inside view of the country’s manufacturing landscape. It also offers comprehensive expertise on the Polish labour market with regard to the manufacturing sector and advice on important legal topics, such as the structure of grants and incentives, setting-up a business, and tax. Insights on the manufacturing industry also include analysis of sectors. The commentary on the real estate market provides a guide to the different acquisition and rental methods, timeframes and market practices.

A Maturing Real Estate Sector

The modern industrial real estate market offers a wide variety of opportunities for manufacturers. The market is transparent and investors can make informed decisions as to whether to own or rent a facility. The permitting process is clear and the amount of prime industrial land available in Poland is increasing.

The market is highly competitive, featuring the presence of many large international developers, who offer high quality manufacturing and warehouse space. The existing supply is no longer restricted to the main industrial clusters and developers have land banks allowing for the rapid development of new schemes in a number of prime and secondary locations.

There are a number of legal structures that can be used for doing business in Poland. Most of them are available to Polish and foreign investors based in the EU or EFTA member countries or countries which have entered into specific international agreements with the EU.

Setting up a business and state aid opportunities

Investors from the manufacturing sector can benefit from different types of state aid in entire Poland. However, the amount of support possible to be obtained depends on type of a project, location where it is planned to be executed as well as on the size of the investor.

As a country to invest in, Poland provides foreign investors with numerous opportunities for obtaining financial support from both the European Union and national funds. Incentives attractive for manufacturing investments are offered in the form of governmental cash grants, CIT exemptions in Special Economic Zones (SEZ), and real estate tax (RETAX) exemptions. Also, there are several funding schemes providing cash grants and tax reliefs for establishment or development R&D units or conducting R&D projects.

Entrepreneurs willing to invest in Poland can set up their business using Polish legal structures. The majority of them is available to Polish and foreign investors based in the EU or EFTA member countries or countries which have entered into specific international agreements with the EU. The report includes information about the most popular legal forms for setting up a business in Poland, which are: limited liability company, a joint-stock company and sole proprietorship.

The Labour Market

Poland offers favourable investment conditions for manufacturers looking to expand in Europe. There are more than 370,000 entities operating in the manufacturing sector across the country, employing more than 2.3 million people.

Human capital is a key element to consider when undertaking any serious investment. While employment costs and the size of experienced talent pool give a snapshot of the current state of opportunities, the size of inexperienced talent pool is very important for the longer term. When taking these factors into account and when comparing to other EU countries, alongside the requirements of the manufacturing sector, it is apparent that Poland offers attractive investment conditions.

Polish employees are perceived as highly skilled and motivated. However, the costs of labour and social security contributions are still markedly lower than in the majority of European countries. Poland’s education system is well connected to the labour market, with increasingly higher numbers of technical and vocational schools graduates.

The Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency

Thanks to its strategic location in the heart of the continent, adjacent to Germany, Poland is an attractive investment destination for European manufacturers. Since 2009, Poland has improved the most among the EU and OECD countries advancing from 76th to 25th position in Doing Business 2016 ranking of the World Bank.

The key drivers of FDI inflow are proximity to European markets, domestic market growth potential, well-developed infrastructure and logistics network, and the availability of highly skilled workers. Poland attracts manufacturers from overseas markets as it offers a regional platform to both: the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region, with some 100 million consumers, and the wider EU market of 500 million customers.

Industrial production in Poland is increasingly more advanced, with growing output from the aviation, electronics and automotive sectors, to mention just a few. Investors appreciate Poland as a location for doing business and the vast majority would invest here again.