Polish meat processor grows sales despite 'difficult' year

Last year also brought a considerable increase in the company’s profitability, as Tarczyń​ski reported a net profit of some PLN23.4m (€5.5m), a robust year-on-year increase from PLN9.9m (€2.3m), as indicated by figures the company released in its financial report for 2017. Net profit per share stood at PLN2.07 (€0.49).

Senior company representatives said the biggest challenge the meat processor had faced last year was related to the sharp increase in raw material prices.

“2017 was also a very difficult year. Turbulence within the raw meat market was a huge impediment to our activities. Production of premium meat products is related to a major dependency on raw material prices, which represent more than 60% of production costs. In 2017, the price of pork meat, which dominates our raw material supply structure, was, at its highest point, 25% higher than in the preceding year,”​ said Jacek Tarczyń​ski, president of the company’s management board and its co-founder, in a letter to shareholders that accompanied the financial report. 

Driven by higher revenues, the meat business aimed to undertake a number of investments, according to its president.

“In 2018 and the following years, we expect a major increase in our expenditure on marketing, research and development, as well as human resources. The year 2018 is also a year of major spending on material investments,” ​Tarczyń​ski said. “We want to continue our work on increasing the brand’s value and its recognition in Poland, as well as abroad.”​

This said, he did not disclose the exact amount the company aimed to invest in its capacities this year.

Tarczyń​ski specialises in processed products using pork and poultry meat, including hams, sausages, frankfurters and Poland’s traditional kabanos pork sausage, among others.

The meat business exports its products to a number of EU member states, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and the three Baltic States. Outside the EU, Tarczyń​ski sells its products to Georgia, according to data from the meat processor. Export sales generated 20.8% of the group’s revenues for 2017.

In 2016, Tarczyń​ski launched its meat processing plant in Ujezdziec Maly, in the country’s southern region. This marked the opening of the group’s third facility of this kind, in addition to the plants in Bielsko-Biala and Slawa. The facility in Ujezdziec Maly specialises in dry processed meat products, the Slawa-based plant makes sausages and other traditional Polish processed meat products, and the facility in Bielsko-Biala specialises in smoked ham, according to the company.

Set up in 1989, the company was established by Jacek and Elzbieta Tarczynski.