Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Warsaw

  • Toyota and PGNiG to build a pilot hydrogen refuelling station in Poland

    Toyota and PGNiG to build a pilot hydrogen refuelling station in Poland

    Toyota Motor Poland and Polish Oil and Gas Company (PGNiG) signed an agreement on cooperation in advancing hydrogen technology in Poland.

    A pilot hydrogen refuelling station will be built under the agreement.

    PGNiG’s hydrogen research programme unveiled in May provides for the production of hydrogen, including green hydrogen using renewable energy sources, hydrogen storage and distribution, and industrial applications.

    The operation of a hydrogen refuelling station, to be built in the Wola district of Warsaw, is also part of the programme.

    PGNiG has already signed a contract with a consortium of Poland- and UK-based companies for the design and construction of the station.

    Hydrogen as clean fuel for future vehicles on the Polish market

    The joint operations are intended to introduce hydrogen as a clean fuel for zero-emission fuel cell vehicles on the Polish market. Hydrogen has been hailed by experts as a fuel of the future.

    Toyota Motor Poland is preparing to launch the second generation of its Mirai passenger car next year. It is the first hydrogen-powered sedan car manufactured on a mass scale.

    Compared with the previous version, the new generation fuel cell car has a driving range extended by 30%, to 650–900 km on a single tank.

    Refuelling will only take a few minutes, making the car fully functional and environmentally friendly.

  • Castorama launches 24/7 parcel collection kiosk trial in Poland

    Castorama launches 24/7 parcel collection kiosk trial in Poland

    Castorama Poland installed its first Click & Collect parcel collection kiosk, ”CastoMat”, at its Popularna Street store in Warsaw.

    Products are ready for collection within two hours of placing an order (for orders placed during the store’s opening hours).

    The lockers are located outside the entrance to the store and can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week via a PIN code sent to the customer’s mobile phone or email address.

    The first CastoMat kiosk is a trial and was introduced following an increase in e-commerce orders and the growing number of customers now opting to use Click & Collect for their online home improvement orders.

  • CCC mobile application was downloaded over 2 million times by customers

    CCC mobile application was downloaded over 2 million times by customers

    The mobile application of CCC has been downloaded by customers over 2 million times after less than 1.5 years from its launch.

    The application is already available on six markets, in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Austria and Hungary, and there are plans to introduce it for two more.

    The app receives good user ratings – an average of 4.4 in the Google Play Store and 4.7 in the App Store.

    The CCC application has a number of useful functionalities such as visual search (IOS and soon for Android), checking the availability of products in stationary stores, access to your CCC Club card and the possibility of joining it.

    CCC team is working on developing new functions.

    In last year’s edition of the Ecommerce Awards competition organized by the Chamber of Electronic Economy, the CCC application won in the “Best on mobile” category.

  • Globalworth manages half a million square metres in Poland

    Globalworth manages half a million square metres in Poland

    In August, the Retro Office House office building located in Wroclaw came under Globalworth’s management.

    Thus, more than 500,000 sqm of office and retail space in the company’s Polish portfolio is now managed by Globalworth’s teams.

    ”Retro Office House is the latest office building for which we are not only the owner but also the manager” says Maciej Kamiński, the Head of Property & Facility Management at Globalworth Poland.

    Retro Office House is a new office building in the center of Wroclaw. The building offers almost 22.000 sqm GLA, which is fully leased to such tenants as Infor and Olympus. 

    The property was acquired by Globalworth in the summer of 2019 for around EUR 59 mln.

  • Poland GDP down by 8.9% in the second quarter

    Poland GDP down by 8.9% in the second quarter

    In the second quarter of 2020 seasonally adjusted GDP (constant prices, reference year 2010) was lower by 8.9% than in the previous quarter and 7.9% lower than in the second  quarter of the previous year.

    Seasonally unadjusted GDP (constant average prices of the previous year) was lower by 8.2% than in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

    The presented GDP flash estimate for the second quarter of 2020 includes effects of COVID-19 and the introduction of government measures to prevent the consequences of the pandemic.

    Statistics Poland show that „data is preliminary and can be subject to revision, in accordance with the revision policy of quarterly national accounts, in the first “regular” estimate of GDP for the second quarter of 2020 which will be released on August 31, 2020”.

  • Investigation into public support for LG Chem’s plant in Poland

    Investigation into public support for LG Chem’s plant in Poland

    The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether €95 million of public support granted by Poland to chemical company LG Chem Group for investing in the expansion of its battery cell production facility for electric vehicles (EV) in Biskupice Podgórne in the Dolnoślaskie region (Poland) is in line with EU rules on regional State aid. 

    In 2017, LG Chem decided to invest more than €1 billion in the expansion of its production capacity of lithium-ion cells and battery modules and packs for electric vehicles in its existing plant in the Dolnoślaskie region of Poland.

    In 2019, Poland notified the Commission of its plans to grant €95 million of public support for the expansion.

    At this stage, the Commission has doubts that the planned public support of €95 million to LG Chem for the expansion of the Biskupice Podgórne plant complies with all relevant criteria of the Regional Aid Guidelines.

    The Commission will now investigate further to determine whether the initial concerns are confirmed.

    In 2019, the Commission approved a €36 million investment aid granted by Poland to support LG Chem’s €325 million investment for the creation of the Biskupice Podgórne in the Dolnoślaskie region of Poland.

  • Polish Infermedica raises $10.25M in Series A funding

    Polish Infermedica raises $10.25M in Series A funding

    With the participation of existing investors – Karma Ventures, Inovo Venture Partners and DreamIT Ventures, as well as two new co-lead investors, EBRD and heal capital, Infermedica raised $10.25M Series A.

    Infermedica is a team of over 100 people – medical doctors, software engineers, and data scientists – who are passionate about the potential of artificial intelligence in preliminary medical diagnosis.

    Their solutions have been used over 6 million times in 17 language versions.

    This additional funding will enable Infermedica to continue developing the technology and expand commercial operations, especially in the US and Germany.

  • LOT to launch another direct flight from Poland to Budapest (Hungary)

    LOT to launch another direct flight from Poland to Budapest (Hungary)

    LOT will launch at the end of August another direct flight between Poland and Hungary. Flights on Wrocław-Budapest route will be operated initially once per week by LOT’s Bombardiers Q400.

    Tickets are already available for sale.

    Starting from 24 August, LOT’s flights between Wrocław and the capital of Hungary will have the following timetable:

    LO 2535 WRO-BUD 01:30 p.m. – 02:45 p.m. Mondays

    LO 2536 BUD-WRO 03:35 p.m. – 04:50 p.m. Mondays

    Increase frequency of the flights from September

    Starting from September this year, Poland’s flag-carrier will increase the frequency of the flights on regular European routes, offering several flights per week to Larnaca or Nice, as well as a dozen or so flights to, among other destinations, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris and London.

    At the same time, the frequency of flights to Brussels, Prague, Budapest and Vilnius will increase to nearly twenty per week.

    In total, LOT offers more than 130 connections to over 70 destinations.

  • Globe Trade Centre (GTC) highlights for Q1 2020

    Globe Trade Centre (GTC) highlights for Q1 2020

    GTC annual in-place rent went up 11% to €145.4m (€130.6m in Q1 2019) and gross margin from rental activity up by 1% to €30m.

    Occupancy kept high at 95%, profit before tax and fair value adjustments of €13m and profit after tax of €3m, earnings per share of €0.01

    Cash and cash equivalents amounted to €196.6m as of 31 March 2020.

    GTC had 19.000 sq m of newly leased or released space and completed Green Heart (N3), Belgrade, project.

    Three office buildings are under construction to bring €11.1m rent upon completion and stabilization: Matrix B Zagreb, Advance Business Center II Sofia, Pillar Budapest.

  • Guardian Glass launches new coater in Czestochowa, Poland

    Guardian Glass launches new coater in Czestochowa, Poland

    Guardian Glass started full production on a technologically advanced new glass coater. its second facility in Czestochowa, Poland.

    The state-of-the-art coater uses advanced technology for turning standard float glass into high performance, value-added glass.

    It will enable the plant to expand production of low-emissivity (low-E), solar control glass products for residential (Guardian ClimaGuard) and commercial (Guardian SunGuard) applications.

    Guardian’s second float and coated glass manufacturing plant in Poland, being built adjacent to its existing Czestochowa plant, will allow Guardian Glass to meet the growing demand for high performance coated and fabricated glass products in Eastern Europe.

    The new facility is the most efficient and operationally effective plant within Guardian Glass.

    Czestochowa’s original float glass line recently went through a cold tank repair, increasing its production capacity by around 25%.

    With both furnaces, Guardian Glass is tripling production in Poland. These investments will enable Guardian to produce and develop value-added products for the Eastern Europe region quickly and efficiently.

    The new float line at Czestochowa is expected to begin operations in September 2020.

  • 97.000 dwellings completed in Poland in the first six months of 2020

    97.000 dwellings completed in Poland in the first six months of 2020

    According to the preliminary Statistics Poland data, 97.0 thousand dwellings were completed in the period of January-June 2020, by 2.7% more than a year ago.

    Developers completed 62.4 thousand dwellings (6.1% more than in the corresponding period of 2019), whereas private investors completed 32.8 thousand dwellings, by 0.9% less than in 2019.

    Within these forms of construction, 98.1% of the total number of completed dwellings was built (respectively 64.3% and 33.8%).

    Less dwellings than a year ago were completed within cooperative construction (661 compared to 954 dwellings); in other forms of construction (municipal, public building society and company construction), 1 179 dwellings were completed in total (compared to 1 655 in the previous year).

    The total useful floor area of dwellings completed in the period of January-June 2020 amounted to 8.7 million sq m, by 2.1% more than in the corresponding period of the previous year.

    Compared to the period of January-June 2019, the average useful floor area of 1 dwelling decreased by 0.6 sq m to the level of 89.5 sq m.

    In the first six months of 2020, permits and registrations have been granted for construction of 122.3 thousand dwellings, i.e. by 5.5% less than in the corresponding period of 2019.

  • French Indigo Group opens a subsidiary in Poland

    French Indigo Group opens a subsidiary in Poland

    Indigo Group is extending its European coverage by opening a subsidiary in Poland, a large country and a promising market for the “concessionary” model (long-term partnership with local authorities).

    With 38 million inhabitants, Poland experienced solid economic growth of 4% in 2019, after an increase of 5.1% in 2018.

    The country has a continuously growing car share that is higher than France in absolute value (> 600 cars / 1000 inh).

    As in the other European countries where it is present (Belgium, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland), Indigo is aiming for a position of reference player in Poland. “

    Indigo plans for Poland

    The company intends to develop in Poland both through acquisitions and organic growth.

    Indigo Polska has thus just won a 10-year contract to operate the car park (150 parking spaces) of a vast real estate program, the “Warsaw Brewery: an iconic complex of restaurants, offices and apartments built on an historic site.

    In Poland, Indigo is positioned on the street parking market, on the management of public car parkings serving hospitals, universities, shopping centers, offices, etc. but also on the emerging market for concession car parkings.

    To develop Indigo Polska, the group recruited Michał Wikliński who previously founded and developed the current Poland Parking Market Leader (CPG).