Experts in high quality industrial paraffin

Polwax, a company based in Jaslo, south-eastern Poland, is one of the largest producers and distributors of refined and deodorised paraffin, waxes and special industrial paraffin compositions in Europe. Although Polwax is a new name, the company’s tradition in the paraffin production market is much longer. Dariusz Balcerzyk reports.

Polwax was founded in January 2012 thanks to the cooperation with a venture capital model financial investor, as a result of separating Lotos Parafiny out of the corporate structures of Capital Group Lotos SA.

Lotos Parafiny itself was created in 2004 as a result of merging two companies operating in southern Poland: RCParafiny from Czechowice-Dziedzice and Parafiny from Jaslo. In effect, the new company became the largest Polish and one of Europe’s leading producers and distributors of refined and deodorised paraffin.

Eight years later, Group Lotos SA sold its 100 per cent shares in the company accordingly to a strategy of concentrating on its core business activities and optimising its portfolio of assets. Krokus Private Equity Fund acquired indirectly 64 per cent of Lotos Parafiny in a leveraged buy-out transaction from the Lotos Group. Mr Mariusz Machajewski, vice-president of Lotos Group said that it was model transaction.

The team of professionals at Krokus PE has been managing private equity in Poland for over 12 years. In June 2007, Krokus PE launched Nova Polonia Natexis II, a €100 million expansion capital and buy-out fund targeted at the Polish mid market. The company was put together with Natexis Private Equity, which is the leading provider of Private Equity to small and mid-sized companies in France. It is also a major player in Europe (Germany, Spain and Italy) and an increasingly high-profile player in the fast-growing markets of Asia and South America. Range of products

Polwax offers high-quality paraffin with oil content not exceeding 0.5 per cent coming from solvent deoiling process, and hydrotreated paraffin with oil content up to 0.75 per cent. Low-oiled paraffin (LTP) is perfect for the production of candles, as well as the manufacture of products in the paper, textile and paint industries. Standard paraffin constitutes a wide range of paraffin types with oil content up to 1.1 per cent. It is a basic raw material for candles, as well as a valuable feedstock in the paint, textile and paper industries.

Polwax also offers high-quality paraffin compositions, which are an excellent raw material for production of candles and grave-lights. Waxes and ceresins constitute a wide range of speciality products that can

be used in various industries. WOSKOP® is a specialised product designed for the rubber industry with a particular emphasis on the needs of tyre manufacturing.

“Special attention should be paid to products, which, thanks to the use of selected feedstock and the appropriate manufacturing process, may come in contact with food (Plastic Wax “S”, Plastic Wax Red, Wax DROMA® and Wax “Z” for paper). They are used in the dairy industry for cheese coating, the poultry industry for defeathering as well as for packaging products intended to come into contact with food,” explains Mr Dominik Tomczyk, Polwax’s president of the board.

“Our customers come from those industries that use paraffin applications, such as: the wood industry (paraffin emulsions and wax), foundry industry (wax casting), chemical industry (anti-caking agents), machine-rubber industry (waxes for wire and conveyor belts coating, wax for tyres), cardboard industry (special adhesives hot-melt type – all juices in cartons contain this kind of adhesive), cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries (white ceresin), etc. Thus, the spectrum of customers is very wide, diversifies our sales and allows us to survive difficult times. The company does not stand only on one leg,” says Mr Dominik Tomczyk.

Quality, stability, flexibility

The company’s total sales in 2012 amounted to more than PLN 260 million (or more than €60 million). “The company has always aimed to maximise margins, not just to increase sales. Therefore we are pleased that, despite a slight drop in sales, our level of net profitability is better than the previous year,” says Mr Tomczyk.

We are a distributor of chemical raw materials from renowned manufacturers.

Our offer includes such oleochemicals as: • Glycerine: pharmaceutical and technical • stearin • Fatty acids • Fatty amines • Fatty alcohols and • bleaching earths for refining edible oils, mineral oils and paraffin. We are looking forward to doing business with you!

Employment at the end of December 2011 throughout the company in two production units (plant for the production of paraffin – Jaslo, paraffin production plant – Czechowice-Dziedzice) was 250 people. At the end of December 2012 the number of employees reached 254.

Export sales for 2012 were estimated as PLN 35 million (€8.3 million). The share of exports varies from 17 to 25 per cent of the total sales volume and from 20 to 25 per cent of the total sales value. “The company’s export activities are largely dependent on the level of trading paraffin and exchange rates. Our portfolio that has been changing and expanding is another factor that has an impact on the level of exports. The main exported products include industrial paraffin and waxes, which include the BS component, anticaking agent (a wide range of applications), paraffin emulsions, waxes for rubber and recently introduced ceresin or Marwax (wax maintenance),” explains Mr Tomczyk. Due to the cost of logistics, the markets of central and eastern Europe (Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Ukraine) are natural directions of exports. “Among the factors distinguishing Polwax from the competition, we should emphasise the quality of the products, the stability of physical-chemical parameters of the products, flexible response to market demand, technological support of customers and product innovation,” says Mr Tomczyk. n