The Warsaw Voice magazine, Autumn 2020 No. 1223

Autumn 2020 No. 1223

Focus on Poland | Published since 1988

Landscape After the Elections Page 4

New Age for Press?

ISSN 0860-7591

Page 13

This publication is part of The Warsaw Voice Multimedia Platform in Poland

Tourism & Meetings Industry After Lockdown Page 10

www.warsawvoice.pl

WARSAW IS READY Ranked among the safest places in Europe to visit this summer and brimming with long‑awaited new openings, Warsaw is ready to welcome international tourists.

Its fascinating history and culture, vibrant culinary scene and the great outdoor lifestyle are once again within reach.

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Table of contents SPECIAL GUEST

Landscape after the elections Tourism and meeting industry after lockdown

Ex-minister behind bars

4-7 10-12

POLITICS AND SOCIETY 8-9

MEDIA

The Warsaw Voice and Media Box

Grill without smoke Woodpecker

13-16

REAL ESTATE

Cushman & Wakefield has summarised Q2 on the Polish retail market The pandemic accelerates changes in retail sector The warehouse market resilient to COVID-19 Office space sector in Poland in the face of coronavirus

17 18-19 20-21 22-23

GREAT GEAR | 24-25

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Managing & Online Services Editor

41 42-44 45

Prologis in Poland and Central Europe in 2019 and Q1 2020 Secure Lotos stations NTT system doubles net profit and increases revenues by a quarter exhibitions Nissan: Leader of electric car sales in Poland Alstom Poland reduces its environmental impact Warsaw is returning to the Emirates network Eco-friendly conferences in fashion

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Autumn 2020

3

LANDSCAPE AFTER THE ELECTIONS Professor Radosław Markowski, a sociologist and political scientist, talks to the Voice’s Witold Żygulski.

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hat has changed on the Polish political scene after the presidential elections in which Andrzej Duda secured his second term as head of state?

The elections have not changed anything on the political scene.

It seems that we have a situation in which the country has a more or less equal number of supporters of two different orientations: active people who see a threat to Polish democracy and the rule of law and are voting for opposition candidates, and those - usually outside the labor market - who think that everything is fine. Never in the history of the 30 years of Polish political transformation have we faced such a colossal demographic and social bias in the electorate of the ruling party.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE PRESIDENT AND THE PEOPLE AROUND HIM ARE ALSO - TO SOME EXTENT – RESPONSIBLE FOR POLISH FOREIGN POLICY, NOW THE WORST IT HAS BEEN IN MANY YEARS. Of course, among those who voted for Andrzej Duda, as well as those who voted for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party in the 2019 parliamentary elections, there is no shortage of young and educated people. However, other groups are over-represented in this electorate - people 4

Autumn 2020

with primary or vocational education, over 60 years of age, out of the labor market, unemployed, pensioners, living in rural or small-town regions. In short, these are people who, for the most part, only moderately contribute to the state budget, but receive a lot from it. Literature calls them “transfer classes”.

Of course, everywhere in the world, through tax systems and other regulations, money is extracted from those who work and add to the budget, and passed on to those who, for one reason or another, live off the working population or are unable to cope. But it rarely translates as clearly into support for those in power as it did in the last Polish elections.

And a situation in which the beneficiaries of these transfers believe that something is wrong with people who work hard, those who contribute to the country’s development and modernization, is completely unheard-of.

According to the slogans of those in power, we are supposed to catch up with Germany economically in a dozen or so years. Meanwhile, the retirement age in Poland is being reduced, while our western neighbor - and several other EU countries - is raising it. It is naivety to assume successful modernization of a country is possible once significant number of talented, devoted, and hard-working people are forced out of the labor market.

An analysis of the election results also shows that fewer and fewer young people identify with the politics and policies of the ruling party.

A separate issue is that the presidential elections were not fair. Back in 2019, after the elections to the Sejm and Senate, the OSCE issued a communiqué suggesting that the behavior of Polish public television (TVP) indicates that the elections were unfair. Over the last 25 years such a situation has never happened. Today, for the same reason - the ideological bias of TVP’s narrative - the issue of the fairness of the elections is even clearer. There are other elements as The Warsaw Voice

Andrzej Duda will be president for the next five years; do you think the second term will be different from the first?

I think it will be the same, it is a matter of personal character.

In 2015, as we all remember, no party put forward a serious candidate against Bronisław Komorowski, who was then in office. He seemed to be an unthreatened, failsafe politician for a second presidential term. At that time PiS put forward a young man intended to get the axe, someone with just a simple task to perform: not to discredit the party, and to make it to the second round of the elections. For various reasons, things went differently; this young, politically uncouth man became president. But already in his first days in office, he was forced to make the famous “night-time appointments,” an unconstitutional procedure [at the beginning of December 2015, the president took an oath, at night, from four new judges of the Constitutional Tribunal whose election was considered unconstitutional by recognized legal authorities].

It is said that in his second term of office, a president can be more independent from his political background because he no longer has to strive for support, since he will not be seeking reelection. But it is different in Poland; with the Tribunal of State in his hands, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński can put the rebellious Duda before the judges at any time and strip him of office. The president does not have much room for maneuver, he can only try to retouch his image a little. [Former PM and former leader of the now biggest opposition party Civic Platform (PO)] Donald Tusk was absolutely right when he tweeted, before Duda was sworn in for a second term of office, not to giggle when the president swears to defend the Constitution - he did not defend it for the last five years, and he will not do so now.

Unfortunately, the president and the people around him are also - to some extent – responsible for Polish foreign policy, now the worst it has been in many years. The fact that the Belarusian opposition presidential candidate went to Lithuania for fear of repression is symbolic proof of this. Only a few years ago, Poland would have been the obvious place of her political emigration: The Belsat independent television station is based here, there is a large Belarusian minority, traditions of fighting against totalitarianism in the spirit of “for your freedom and ours”, etc. Polish foreign policy’s Three Seas Initiative is a total failure. The Romanians are laughing, the Croats are laughing, nobody takes us seriously.

Nobody calls Warsaw anymore to get anything political done for Moldova or Georgia in the European Union.

Another painful failure is the policy toward the United States, which the malicious describe, not without foundation, as standing on one’s knees - literally and figuratively.

Being dependent on the United States is nothing special in the world today, but during Donald Trump’s presidency it has taken on special meaning. The American leader treats The Warsaw Voice

everyone instrumentally, as he has actually told Polish politicians on several occasions.

The one-sided servility, the Bantustan-like subordination that the Polish authorities present today, is disastrous in consequences. The Arab world treats Poland as an obedient dog of the Americans, which carries a potential threat of terrorist attacks.

Even today, when the recent political developments in the United States are rather predictable, Polish politicians of the ruling camp are not stopping to reflect. The president and the prime minister keep saying that they are counting on a “Fort Trump” of U.S. armed forces in Poland. I wonder how they estimate the chances for this fort when Joe Biden becomes president of the United States in a few months’ time.

Additionally, the agreement on the U.S. Army stationing in Poland can raise serious doubts. The exemption of American soldiers from Polish law is a bizarre provision that in

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well: the exclusion of certain groups of citizens, especially those living abroad, from voting, astonishing results in places such as nursing homes [almost 100% of votes for Duda].

These are Belarusian standards, Alexander Lukashenko’s standards. Unfortunately, the opposition was not able to ensure that they had their “trusted representatives” in all the electoral commissions, so we do not know the actual scale of fraud in the voting process. My fear is that it was bigger than commonly believed.

prof. Radosław Markowski, sociologist and political scientist

Autumn 2020

5

Polish history was probably only applied to the de facto occupying Soviet army after 1945. Such provisions functioned in the worst periods of the Cold War, but many people cannot understand why American soldiers should enjoy impunity during normal times in Poland.

Last but not least, partners who are putting enormous money into Poland’s economic development and modernization, i.e. the European Union, are being ostentatiously disregarded.

The opposition presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski achieved a surprisingly good result in the second round. Will this undoubted success help the opposition or harm it? Most supporters of the Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party, think that Trzaskowski should start his own grouping.

In view of the late start of the election campaign and the unbelievable propaganda aggression of public television, Trzaskowski’s result, i.e. over 10 million votes, must be considered really impressive. But it is impossible not to notice that this result is composed of different, often mutually exclusive ideas for Poland. Trzaskowski’s supporters include people who think that he was too soft, too ecumenical, oriented at uniting Poles at all costs; others think that he was not conciliatory enough. This is the first problem with his political future.

The second problem is that in Poland, since the beginnings of the Solidarity trade union, we have uncritically believed in the power of social movements. We negate the well-known principle of no parties - no democracy, or even no parties - no political system. Parties create a system that cannot be created by trade unions, churches or professional associations.

Without party structures, little can be accomplished. The question then is: Will Trzaskowski be in a position to create his own grouping without PO structures? After all, the party has a network, activists, millions in state subsidies. Therefore, it is unclear how he could get rid of the old face of the PO, which does not sit well with many voters. Needless to say, such a parting would have to take place in an atmosphere of conflict, which would not serve either side well, either.

We still have three years until the next [parliamentary] elections. If Trzaskowski wants to create something of his own, he has to do it now, not wait until the last moment. But it also needs noting that there are some really cunning people on the other side; if something politically popular starts to emerge in the opposition camp, they can always provoke a constitutional crisis and call early elections calculating that it increases their chances of maintaining a parliamentary majority without any problems for the next four years.

Trzaskowski also does not seem keen - which in my opinion is a serious political mistake - to try and seriously attract the left-wing electorate. In Polish society we have 30-40 percent of supporters of left-wing policies, from economic and redistributive policies to those related to sociocultural issues. The Polish left is completely unable to take advantage of this fact.

How do you see the political future of Szymon Hołownia, an independent candidate, journalist, writer and TV presenter that ended third in the first round of the elections?

Hołownia won people over, had a good program, gained millions of supporters. Although he was, all in all, a conservative candidate, he was able to criticize the existing theocracy in Poland and spoke openly about the need to separate the 6

Autumn 2020

state from the church, words that left-wing candidate Robert Biedroń was unable to articulate. Thanks to Hołownia, a vision of enlightened conservatism appeared in Poland, as presented by Western European Christian-Democratic parties or the British Conservative Party. This is certainly needed as a panacea for nationalist megalomania sprinkled with socialist ideas for the economy, like PiS’s last peculiar idea to create a network of state-owned grocery stores. But for a political project of this kind to gain raison d’être, once again a structure, an organization, a strong group of supporters capable of creating a nationwide network is needed. Such a project would also require some part of the Polish business community to provide funding for the new grouping.

Presidential elections are easier than parliamentary elections. Candidates who speak sense and present themselves well have a chance for a good result. This was the case with Hołownia. But parliamentary elections are completely different; winning 20-30 percent support is a challenge of a different caliber.

How will the presidential elections affect the political position of smaller parties - the Polish People’s Party (PSL), the Left, or the right-wing Confederation?

The PSL and the Left failed completely, their candidates had a terrible campaign and - as a consequence - logically respective results. I cannot understand how the staff of left-wing candidate Biedroń failed to notice that presenting symmetrism, i.e. consistently repeating that PiS is an evil, but the PO is almost as problematic, leads to failure? Ninety percent of the left-wing electorate did not want to listen to this. Meanwhile, poor Biedroń obstinately kept repeating it in each of his appearances.

The radical right wing, the Confederation, achieved a surprisingly good result. Previously, this grouping was identified only with fascist skinheads, with support oscillating around 1-2 percent, but suddenly its representatives started to talk sensibly about the economy, criticizing blindly populist redistribution and the lack of economic rationality. Sometimes it was the only voice of economic rationality in the Polish public debate, when PiS and PO politicians even started trying to outbid each other with declarations of what else to offer, without any reason, to whom. Many people liked this attitude, and it enabled them to forget about the other, xenophobic face of the Confederation.

The question arises as to which way the radical right will choose to move in the future. I do not say party, because - and this is worth noting - there have been hardly any individual parties in the Polish parliament since 2019. No grouping representing itself as a party has entered the Sejm and Senate, all of them running for election in one coalition or another. The coalition in power today is the United Right with the PiS party as the senior coalition partner, the opposition is the Civic Coalition with the PO at the head, the Polish Coalition is an alliance of the Kukiz15 and PSL parties, the Left is also a coalition. It is no different with the Confederation. Today this grouping is faced with the choice of whether to move along the path of economic ultraliberalism, presented for many years by one of its leaders, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, neglecting sociocultural themes, or to continue its ideological offensive. This is irreconcilable; I don’t think that more than 6-7 percent of the The Warsaw Voice

The presidential election is behind us, but the situation in the ruling camp is far from stable. The United Right, led by the largest party, Jarosław Kaczyński’s PiS, faces changes that could even cause its disintegration; what are the possible scenarios?

The situation in the governing coalition is influenced by many factors, some of them external, independent of the conduct of Polish politicians. A crisis is knocking on the door. Although Prime Minister Morawiecki assures everyone that EU funds for Poland are in no way determined by domestic politics, this probably only proves that he did not understand what happened at the last EU summit in Brussels. The EU decided to allocate really big funds for Poland so that the politicians ruling in Warsaw could see how much they would lose if the

rule of law was not respected and if the EU requirements related to environmental protection and combating climate change were not implemented. The archaic idea to base the economy on hard coal as the primary energy resource almost until the end of this century will simply not be accepted in united Europe. This is one of the factors that can disintegrate the ruling camp. There will be those willing to follow the EU’s recommendations, but also those who will categorically opt for “economic patriotism” and “the Polish raison d’état.”

Another problem of the ruling camp is Zbigniew Ziobro [leader of the coalition party Solidarna Polska, minister of justice and prosecutor-general], who has recently become strongly radicalized and has apparently started his long march for power, something not everyone likes, especially among the coalition members.

It is also possible that the street will decide. Today in Europe we are facing a wave of civil protests. Romanians are rebelling, Bulgarians are rebelling, even in a country like Belarus tens of thousands of people take to the streets to protest against political evil, violation of the constitution, and corruption. There are good reasons for mass street protests in Poland.

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electorate can reconcile market rationality with wild nationalism. It is impossible to maintain both faces of the party. I believe that the Confederation will gain much more if it chooses the path of consistent liberal rationalism. The rhetoric of economic patriotism can win the party new supporters, allowing for a parliamentary election result of more than 10 percent.

Poland cut in half - IPSOS poll on election results

A. Duda

51%

R. Trzaskowski

49%

Turnout

67,9%

Source: TVN24

ACCORDING TO IPSOS DATA, women more often voted for Rafał Trzaskowski than for Andrzej Duda.

The current president could count on 49.6 percent of all women’s votes, while 51.3 percent of women voted for Rafał Trzaskowski. The statistic of men’s votes is the opposite. 51.3 percent of the men indicated for Duda, while Trzaskowski was elected by 48.7 percent.

Andrzej Duda received 77.3 percent of the votes of people with primary education. The current president was also a favorite of voters who

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graduated from vocational schools.

In this group as many as 74.7 percent of the voters voted for him. Among people with secondary and post-secondary education the competition was the most balanced. 50.3 percent of voters supported Duda and 49.7 percent pointed to Rafał Trzaskowski. Among the voters with higher education, Rafał Trzaskowski was the decisive winner. As much as 65.9 percent of this electorate pointed to him.

There is also a clear division among voters of different age groups.

The young people elected Rafal

Trzaskowski and the seniors were supporters of Andrzej Duda. 64.4 percent of the youngest voters (18-29 years old) pointed to Rafal Trzaskowski and 35.6 percent to Andrzej Duda. In groups 30-39 and 40-49 Trzaskowski also won, but here his advantage over Duda was much smaller and amounted to 10.8 percentage points and 10.4 percentage points respectively. Voters over 50 years old more often chose Duda. In the 50-59 group his advantage was 18.2 percentage points, and among voters aged 60+ 23.4 percentage points.

Autumn 2020

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EX-MINISTER BEHIND BARS

Many politicians of today’s opposition view the arrest and detention of a former member of the government of the Civic Platform-Polish People’s Party (PO-PSL) coalition as the beginning of a “witchhunt” that the ruling United Right intends to unleash.

But prosecutors assure that they have proof of the former official’s criminal activity.

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ławomir Nowak, former minister of transportation in Donald Tusk’s government (2011-2013), was arrested on July 22. Public prosecutors accuse him of taking bribes during his work as president of the State Road Agency of Ukraine (Ukravtodor).

Jacek P., who was also detained, was a Polish shareholder of one of Nowak’s companies. The third arrested person was Dariusz Z., former commander of the Polish elite commando force GROM. They have been accused of participation in an organized criminal group, money laundering and accepting financial benefits.

NOWAK ALLEGEDLY MADE THE AWARDING OF CONTRACTS FOR ROAD CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE DEPENDENT ON PAYMENTS TO COMPANIES HE DESIGNATED: ONE IN CYPRUS AND ANOTHER IN POLAND. HE IS ALSO ACCUSED OF MONEY LAUNDERING. 8

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Nowak and Jacek P. were arrested for three months.

Dariusz Z. was placed under conditional arrest; if he paid 1 million zlotys, he would be released. So far, he has not paid the bail.

The investigation in the case is being conducted simultaneously by Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) and the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw as well as the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Kiev and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. It began in January 2019 in Poland, and in Ukraine was launched in November 2019. Evidence is being exchanged and actions are being coordinated by a specially established Polish-Ukrainian investigation team.

Nowak (45) holds Ukrainian as well as Polish citizenship. He was the president of Ukravtodor in 2016-2019.

The Prosecutor’s Office has accused the former politician of heading an organized criminal group during his work in Ukraine. Nowak allegedly made the awarding of contracts for road construction and maintenance dependent on payments to companies he designated: one in Cyprus and another in Poland. He is also accused of money laundering.

According to our unofficial information, there are four specific tenders in which the former minister allegedly committed these crimes.

On Aug. 3 the Prosecutor’s Office detained Aleksander D. in the former transport minister’s case. D. was a representative of a Polish company that applied for a contract for the construction and renovation of a road in Ukraine, Aleksandra Skrzyniarz, spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

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kowski ended on July 10. Hence questions from the Civic Coalition about the activities of law enforcement services at that particular time.

“I am mistrustful. Courts are there to explain such cases.

I hope that the prime minister confirms that no member of my election staff, nor I myself, has ever been under surveillance, because such an assurance is extremely important,” Trzaskowski said in an interview.

POLITICS AND SOCIETY

“Sławomir N. is suspected of demanding and accepting financial and personal benefits in exchange for awarding contracts for road construction and renovation in Ukraine to private entities, as well as laundering the money from this crime. As a result, he received more than 1.3 million zlotys,” said Skrzyniarz.

“For the time being, I am stating unequivocally that in my opinion there is no such evidence,” said Joanna Broniszewska, Nowak’s attorney. “Our client consistently challenges his guilt in connection with the charges,” she claimed.

“During one day, more than 30 coordinated searches were conducted at private locations, in offices. During these operations, neither the money that was allegedly obtained as a result of the accepted financial benefit was secured, nor were any documents found that, in the opinion of the prosecutors, would prove the connections between the particular economic entities described in the charges, so for the time being I am saying unequivocally that in my view there is no such evidence,” Broniszewska explained.

“It is possible that more materials and answers to this question will be found in the part of the classified file to which the defenders have not had access, but, based on the analysis made at the present time, these allegations are unjustified and, in my opinion, the charges presented are premature,” Broniszewska claimed.

Zbigniew Ziobro, Poland’s minister of justice and general prosecutor, admitted that he had knowledge of the investigation before CBA officers entered Nowak’s home.

“Did I know about the case? I knew. Did I know specific information related to the case? I did not,” he said.

Former opposition presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski has voiced serious doubts about the case. The election campaign in which Nowak cooperated with Trzas-

REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PROTESTS, THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT THE FORMER MINISTER WILL REMAIN IN CUSTODY AT LEAST UNTIL OCT. 20.

“In no case has the Prosecutor’s Office or the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, in cases that I am aware of, used operational or procedural methods to keep politicians under surveillance, as some people are trying to say here,” answered minister Ziobro.

Regardless of political protests, there is no doubt that the former minister will remain in custody at least until Oct. 20. Nothing is known about him being formally questioned.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the case is still being explained. Therefore, it is unlikely that formal charges will be made and a possible indictment issued before the end of this year.

Sławomir Nowak, former minister of transportation in Donald Tusk’s government (2011-2013)

The Warsaw Voice

Autumn 2020

9

TOURISM AND MEETING INDUSTRY AFTER LOCKDOWN Juliusz Kłosowski and Witold Żygulski talk with Andrzej Gut-Mostowy, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Development, responsible for the tourism sector.

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ow do you assess the scale of today’s crisis for the tourism industry, especially the meetings industry, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Certainly, tourism in its broadest sense has suffered great damage, in terms of turnover and profitability. However, the tourism industry has different faces. Starting from sightseeing tourism, through camping, to hotel facilities. As for the latter, the scale of regression is quite different in small towns, where one comes for the sake of nature, and in metropolitan centers, such as Warsaw, Cracow, Gdansk

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or Wroclaw. According to statistical data, the proximity of nature and the lack of crowds are extremely desirable conditions that make it easier to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 crisis. A very good result - even better than in previous years - was recorded by campsites in the first half of the year, but hotel occupancy rates are now single-digit percentage in large cities. It therefore makes no sense to draw statistical averages for the tourism crisis because it is difficult to judge.

Tourism is changing its preferences, and all sectors are facing new challenges.

The meetings industry is indeed one of the most affected by crisis economic areas. This is due not only to the lockdown restrictions, but also to changes in consumer preferences caused by the pandemic. Even when administrative regulations allow for larger conferences, there is still no general will to participate in such events. Consequently, no one risks investing money in such activities. However, in this respect, I am a moderate optimist. Every restriction causes a reaction in the human psyche, causes a desire to react.

When at some point the administrative and psychological barriers disappear, it will turn out that the meetings industry will return to its activity, because people will want to meet, that is our nature. The only question is how quickly such a situation will happen.

At a recent world conference of ministers of tourism one of the recognized experts said that the appearance of the coronavirus vaccine will bring the tourism industry quickly back on the path of turnover growth. There will be a rebound - people who have met for years, indifferently, whether socially or in conference, they will start again regularly to meet.

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meetings industry, as one of the most affected by the crisis, also cries for help, mentioning particularly desirable forms, such as guaranteed loans or changes in the VAT collection system. What does this have to do with the chances of being implemented?

The ministry should not be concerned with stimulating or creating demand or trying to influence customer preferences, whether we are talking about the hospitality, backpacking tourism or the meetings industry.

Society makes its own choices. In a market economy, the ministry has to support all trends, all possibilities, but should not manually control processes taking place in the economy. Ministry, can only be a catalyst for market changes, which are very dynamic today. As early as August, it may have seemed to us that the epidemic is coming to an end, but then there was a sudden increase and today we have to reckon with the possibility of a second wave of the pandemic. Therefore, the whole industry is affected by the global epidemiological situation.

We offer many support mechanisms for the tourism industry, including the meetings industry. These are subsidies to a part of the wage costs of employees of small and medium-sized enterprises and the social security contributions due from these salaries. Low-interest loans for microenterprises and the possibility of subsidizing wages from the Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund during economic downtime or reduction of working hours are also helpful.

Today, Polish entrepreneurs receive powerful state support within the framework of the so-called anti-crisis shield; the

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However, we do not have the vaccine yet and we have to face the current conditions; what do you bet on when it comes to the near future of the meetings industry? Are they technology platforms, or hybrid variants, or, finally, traditional meetings, of course with all the rules of pandemic time?

The tourist voucher, which has been introduced during the pandemic, primarily supports the budgets of families and entrepreneurs from the holiday tourism sector. In the Małopolska region there is already an educational voucher, addressed strictly to entrepreneurs. It can be used to pay for example for organized trainings. Is there under consideration any idea of a similar solution for the meetings industry, let’s say a conference voucher?

Andrzej Gut-Mostowy, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Development

The Warsaw Voice

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The idea of a tourist voucher is a combination of social policy with support for tourism, so it is difficult to apply this solution to the meetings industry. Other incentives would have to be used, especially financial ones, especially tax ones, which would need to be agreed with the Ministry of Finance.

Fiscal preferences should be a good solution for the industry.

Of course, they must be precise and tight, then, in my opinion, will effectively contribute to the revival of the meetings market, while maintaining all the rigors resulting from the conditions of the pandemic.

AS EARLY AS AUGUST, IT MAY HAVE SEEMED TO US THAT THE EPIDEMIC IS COMING TO AN END, BUT THEN THERE WAS A SUDDEN INCREASE AND TODAY WE HAVE TO RECKON WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF A SECOND WAVE OF THE PANDEMIC. Representatives of the meetings industry today talk about the need for access to guaranteed loans, without which they are not even able to pay out.

Such loans are already available. Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) [the state-owned bank, which is today one of the main operators of state aid for entrepreneurs as part of the anti-crisis shield] offers guarantees of up to 80 percent of the value of a given project. This gives a breath of fresh air to commercial banks or any other lenders, and helps ease the burden of risk.

The meeting business has for years been raising the problem of being unable to deduct VAT from many costs incurred 12

Autumn 2020

in connection with the organization of congresses, conferences, fairswe are talking, for example, about hotel services or catering. This is an obvious loophole in the regulations since the conference organizer is not an end user, but must treat the VAT charged for these services as a cost. Can the industry count on changes in these regulations especially in the current situation?

As Secretary of State responsible for Tourism I will always fight for that VAT solutions are as beneficial as possible for the wider public of the understood industry. In this case, however, our role as a department is limited - we can only make demands to the Ministry of Finance, which watches over all the funds at the state’s disposal.

It has a decisive opinion on tax issues. Of course, we present the current difficult situation of the tourism sector, we monitor the situation, but we realize that it is ultimately the Ministry of Finance who will make these financial decisions.

A few months ago, under completely different conditions, we talked about the prospect of introducing a system of local tourist fees in Poland, which would bring additional funds to local governments for the development of tourist infrastructure in the region; is this project being continued?

Consultations, discussions and analysis of this issue are ongoing. Discussions with the local authorities indicate that the planned tourist fee should be independent of environmental impact, cannot duplicate the already existing climate charge.

In September, I hope, the parliament will pass the most important regulation today - the so-called tourist shield. Then we will be able to return to the issue of local tourist fees.

The European Fund for Reconstruction is to direct funds amounting up to 175 billion Euros to Poland; what part of these funds will have a chance to boost tourism and the meetings industry?

The Ministry of Development has of course expressed interest in these funds; the pool of projects also includes those related to tourism and the meetings industry. Now it is too early to provide details, as the work is still ongoing.

The Warsaw Voice

THE WARSAW VOICE AND MEDIA BOX

Since its inception in 1988 The Warsaw Voice has made it its mission to provide reliable, objective and up-to-date information on Poland to English-speaking foreigners in Poland and worldwide. It was neither logistically easy nor cheap to print and distribute the paper internationally. Everything changed during the digital era. Today “print media” are available digitally first and foremost. Digital platforms are also the first choice for readers.

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ne such platform is Media Box, providing hotel guests and airline passengers worldwide with access to several thousand titles – including The Warsaw Voice, of course.

Thanks to this collaboration the magazine recently started returning, in a digital version, on board LOT Polish Airlines planes. Why? Because Media Box’s operator and PLL LOT signed an agreement on cooperation.

LOT has introduced a number of changes to its passenger service and in-flight products to improve passenger comfort.

In addition to technological changes in communication with passengers, LOT was one of the first air carriers in Europe to introduce digital press on board its aircraft. More than 1,000 titles can be downloaded via the mobile app 36 hours before departure and up to six hours after landing.

LOT has responded quickly and flexibly to the challenges posed to the aviation industry by the coronavirus pandemic. This applies not only to the destinations gradually being restored, which are of interest to passengers after a difficult period of restrictions. In order to meet the expectations of its customers, LOT has introduced a number of facilities for passenger service and in-flight products. One example of this is the replacement of paper newspapers and magazines on board aircraft and in business lounges with a wide range of Polish and foreign press in a digital version.

The Warsaw Voice

“At this difficult time for the aviation industry, we are constantly working on developing our offer to better meet the needs of our passengers. By offering digital press, we not only increase the range of titles to over 1,000 Polish and foreign magazines, but also make them available to a much wider audience, i.e. passengers travelling in LOT Economy Class and on domestic flights. The pro-ecological aspect of this change is also important. Until now, we have been taking parcels with traditional press, weighing up to 45 tonnes, on board our planes every month. Now we offer each of our passengers an environmentally friendly, up-

MEDIA CARRIER IS A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY PROVIDING HOTEL GUESTS AND AIR OR RAILWAY PASSENGERS WITH ACCESS TO THE PRESS IN DIGITAL FORM ON THEIR OWN MOBILE DEVICES. Autumn 2020

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to-date and modern product tailored to individual needs: digital press,” says Michał Fijoł, Chief Commercial Officer at LOT Polish Airlines.

The new service is provided by the technology company Media Carrier, which gives passengers of airlines, cruise ships and guests of more than 1,200 hotels around the world access to digital press on their own mobile devices.

“We are delighted that, with LOT, one more top airline is demonstrating its trust in us and integrating the Media Box into its service offering. Our Media Box can be used with any internet-capable device; it is not necessary to install an app, register or enter personal data.

Each passenger uses only their own mobile device to read their digital newspaper or magazine, and merely touches the display to download their favorite reading, turn pages 14

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or scroll. This is of course much more hygienic and safe than using print titles, which often pass through several hands and can therefore be carriers of a variety of germs or viruses,” says Philipp J. Jacke, Managing Director at Media Carrier.

Until now, traditional printed press was available only on LOT’s international flights to passengers of LOT Business Class and LOT Premium Economy Class, and the offering included approximately 20 titles. Currently, LOT offers over 1,000 digital press titles to all passengers, regardless of class and travel destination. The press on offer includes dailies and magazines in several dozen language versions (e.g. Polish, English, Hungarian, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Spanish, Japanese and Korean), as well as LOT’s in-flight magazine Kaleidoscope. Favorite titles can be downloaded 36 hours before departure and up to six hours after landing.

The Warsaw Voice

MEDIA

2011,” says Tomasz Krysicki, the owner of TASK. “Currently we provide more than 50 Polish newspapers and magazines to the Media Box, of course including The Warsaw Voice,” Krysicki adds.

In Poland, customized Media Boxes are available at hotels by the InterContinental Group, Radisson Blu, Zdrojowa Hotels, Hilton, Leonardo Hotels, Golden Tulip, Vienna House, as well as in the executive lounges of the Warsaw Chopin and Kraków-Balice airports.

The second vast area of the company’s activity is the air travel market. The entire Lufthansa Group uses a special platform (Media Box eJournals): Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Eurowings, Edelweiss, Air Dolomiti. So do several other airlines; the company’s aviation operations are conducted by Virgin Atlantic, Etihad, Finnair, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Aurora, S7, Atlantic Airways, Volotea, and SunExpress - in total creating potential of over 270 million passengers per year.

OUR UPGRADED MEDIA BOX MEETS THIS CHANGED TREND IN DEMAND, ENABLING US TO PROVIDE OUR CUSTOMERS WITH A COMPREHENSIVE AND HIGHLY USER-FRIENDLY MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY. Philipp J. Jacke, Managing Director at Media Carrier.

The dailies and magazines can be found on the lot. com/digitalpress website where, after entering their name and booking number, passengers can download the magazine of their choice free of charge. Depending on the travel class, you can download from one to five titles. After using up the allocated limit, passengers can choose from the available free titles or purchase additional titles. The prices of dailies start from PLN 1.00, weeklies from about PLN 4.00, and specialist press from a few tens of zlotys. Payment can be made by credit card or via PayPal. Media Carrier is a technology company providing hotel guests and air or railway passengers with access to the press in digital form on their own mobile devices.

It currently serves over 1,200 locations in 59 countries on six continents. The company’s portfolio includes over 1,500 titles in about 40 languages from some 60 countries. Media Boxes (virtual libraries with digital press) are available in over 80,000 rooms, mainly in four- to five-star hotels.

Media Carrier is represented in Poland by the TASK company. “Actually, we have been teamed up with Media Carrier from the very beginning, since its foundation in The Warsaw Voice

Philipp J. Jacke Media Box is an extremely easy-to-use website fully integrated graphically with local WiFi networks.

The user can download and read the available titles (as PDFs they are identical to the printed version) and keep them to read later (e.g. during travel) on a mobile device. The Media Box system is programmed in responsive technology – Responsive Web Design (RWD). The purpose of using RWD is to build universal modules with digital press, which will be highly legible and visually attractive on any equipment, whether desktop computer, laptop, notebook, tablet or smartphone. Websites designed in RWD adjust dynamically (i.e. in real time) to all resolutions and screen sizes, and even the current orientation of the device (horizontal or vertical).

The service works smoothly with every device usually taken on the road: iPad, iPhone, tablet, smartphone, netbook or laptop. It is independent of the installed operating system (Android, iOS, Windows, etc.). Moreover, absolutely no special application is required, no registration, configuration or other potentially tricky procedure. Practically one click opens the hotel or airline library with current press. Foreign newspapers are available early in the Autumn 2020

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morning on the day of release, and all users can access the system simultaneously.

Media Boxes operate in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Scandinavia, the UK, the United States, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Australia, Egypt, Morocco, Qatar and the UAE, and in the CEE region in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Baltic republics, Hungary and the Russian Federation.

Recently Media Box went more multimedia, becoming fit for the new decade and beyond.

A few days ago Media Carrier launched its premium product with a modernized look and feel, optimized user-friendliness and a significantly expanded content offer: Alongside more than 1,500 newspapers and magazines in a wide range of languages, other types of content including games, podcasts, videos, streaming services and live TV can now also be integrated into the Media Box. “The coronavirus crisis has changed people’s media behavior. Because of quarantines and self-isolation they now largely consume digital media. Demand for digital media

has therefore grown exponentially, regardless of format, be it digital papers or podcasts,” says Media Carrier managing director Philipp J. Jacke. “Our upgraded Media Box meets this changed trend in demand, enabling us to provide our customers with a comprehensive and highly user-friendly multimedia library.”

Introducing a new design, Media Carrier aims to make the experience of digital media consumption as attractive and easy as possible for Media Box users. This includes a full text search enabling users to quickly find their favorite publications.

The media library now also integrates games, podcasts, videos, live TV or streaming services as well as customer-specific content such as promotional flyers or customer publications, which can all be easily accessed by users without a cumbersome registration process.

The new Media Box enables airlines, hotels and transport companies but also gyms or health centers that have integrated Media Carrier’s Media Box into their service offering to provide their members, passengers or guests with enormous added value.

MEDIA CARRIER AIMS TO MAKE THE EXPERIENCE OF DIGITAL MEDIA CONSUMPTION AS ATTRACTIVE AND EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR MEDIA BOX USERS.

More than 1,000 titles can be downloaded via the mobile app 36 hours before departure and up to six hours after landing.

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The Warsaw Voice

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD HAS SUMMARISED Q2 ON THE POLISH RETAIL MARKET Nearly 90,000 sq m of retail space came on stream across all formats in Q2 2020. In H1 2020, new supply totalled 165,000 sq m, of which nearly 40% was delivered through openings in cities below 100,000 inhabitants.

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ewly built schemes were sized under 20,000 sq m as the retail market has reached maturity and saturation.

More than 420,000 sq m of retail space is currently under construction and scheduled for delivery in 2020-2021. The largest projects underway include the mixeduse complex Fabryka Norblina in Warsaw, the Karuzela shopping centre in Kołobrzeg, and the Color Park shopping centre in Nowy Targ. Half of the development pipeline will be delivered in smaller cities with a population below 100,000.

“We will continue to see smaller convenience centres and small retail parks being added to the existing retail stock.

The average size of all projects under construction is 12,000 sq m. The pandemic is also likely to accelerate decisions to remodel, upgrade or repurpose shopping centres that were underperforming before its outbreak,” says Katarzyna Lipka, Head of Consulting & Research, Cushman & Wakefield.

Prime shopping centre rents held firm before the pandemic, with a slight upward trend. Warsaw retained the top spot with prime rents for a 100 sq m unit in its best-in-class shopping centres at EUR 120-130/sq m/month. Rents stood at EUR 40-52/sq m/month for similar units in other major cities.

“Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, many shopping centre tenants renegotiated lease conditions, showing more caution in execution of long-term leases. Signs have started to emerge that tenants expect temporary rent discounts (until the end of 2020) of around 20% for units in shopping centres, which will require a lease renewal for another 12-18 months on average,” says Małgorzata Dziubińska, Associate Director, Cushman & Wakefield.

The data from the Polish Council of Shopping Centres (PRCH) shows that footfall Katarzyna Lipka, Head of Consulting in shopping centres which & Research, Cushman & Wakefield The Warsaw Voice

were reopened on 4 May has been rising steadily ever since, accounting for 80-87% of last year’s footfall in the 13-19 July week. According to the PRCH Turnover Index, retail sales were down in May 2020 by 33% year-on-year in large shopping centres (sized 40,000-plus sq m) and by 26% in smaller retail schemes. The steepest year-on-year falls in turnover were reported in entertainment (-97%) and services (-86%).

Ever since shopping centres were reopened in May, the share of online sales in total retail sales has been falling steadily - it stood at 7.7% in June compared with 9.1% a month earlier and 5-6% before the pandemic. Falls were reported, among others, by retailers in the following categories: “textiles, fashion and footwear” (down to 19.5% from 26.8% a month earlier), “press, books and other sales in specialized stores” (down to 21.8% from 25.2%), and “furniture, electronics and household goods” (down to 14.1% from 15.6%).

Meanwhile, total retail sales were down in June 2020 by 1.3% year-on-year, but up by 8.4% compared to May 2020.

Małgorzata Dziubińska, Associate Director, Cushman & Wakefield

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THE PANDEMIC ACCELERATES CHANGES IN RETAIL SECTOR

New opportunities can be attractive especially for convenience centres and retail park developers.

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s restrictions in physical stores eased, total retail sales in May were 14.9% higher than in April. At the same, time e-commerce sales dropped from 11.9% in April to 9.1% of total retail sales.

Although the development of e-commerce in Poland is now very much a fact, traditional retailing is still the most popular choice for Polish customers. The outbreak

Joanna Tomczyk, Senior Research Analyst, JLL

of the pandemic in March highlighted the challenges that the market, both in Poland and internationally, has been facing for a long time. It is not only about the need to increase the activity of retail chains in e-commerce and omnichannel, but also about seeking out new sales formats and location types that will allow brands to attract new target groups”, comments Anna Wysocka, Head of Retail Agency, JLL. “The outbreak of the pandemic has certainly slowed construction activity. Nevertheless, in H1 2020, developers in Poland completed nearly 148,000 sqm of retail space in largescale projects1. Nearly 77,000 sqm of that volume was delivered in Q2 2020. Undoubtedly, one of the highlights not only of this half-year, but for the whole of 2020, was the opening of the long-awaited Elektrownia Powiśle in Warsaw”, explains Joanna Tomczyk, Senior Research Analyst, JLL. At the same time, Sukcesja shopping centre in Łódź and four Tesco stores (in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Piastów, Leszno, and Puławy) were closed.

Currently, the total under-construction volume of retail space to be completed by either 2020 or 2021 totals nearly 490,000 sqm. However, some opening dates may be pushed back.

“An interesting trend, despite the ongoing pandemic, is the continuation of the rapid development of convenience centres2. By the end of H1 2020, almost 40,000 sqm in 13 projects entered the Polish market and some 73,000 sqm is still under construction. This proves that smaller centres 1

GLA>5,000 sqm Schemes with GLA between 2,000 and 4,999 sqm

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The Warsaw Voice

set classes: convenience, food stores, retail parks and retail schemes for redevelopment.

Prime shopping centre yields are now estimated at 5.15%, with prime retail park yields remaining stable at 6.80%.

There was, however, no transactional evidence for shopping centres in Q2 2020, apart from the abovementioned

REAL ESTATE

respond very well to the needs of customers when it comes to convenient and everyday shopping”, adds Tomczyk.

It is not surprising that the pandemic affected the level of demand for retail space. The drop in footfall numbers in the majority of shopping centres combined with a drop in turnover, as well as ongoing talks between tenants and shopping centre owners, have caused a slowdown or even temporary suspension of development plans of some retail chains, especially those in the fashion sector.

“It should be noted, however, that some tenants, in particular grocery chain operators and value retailers, such as Tedi, Pepco, Dealz and Action, are still actively looking for new locations. The greatest activity by retailers is being seen in the convenience centre sector, retail parks, outlet centres and shopping centres in smaller cities. In fact, these facilities were the fastest after the lockdown to return to footfall levels similar to pre-pandemic levels”, adds Wysocka.

There is also an uptick in interest in pop-up locations on the Polish market that help tenants to both sell goods that are currently stored in warehouses and test new options.

“H1’s retail investment volume of 430 million EUR was dominated by the purchase of 61.49% stake in GTC, whose portfolio includes Galeria Jurajska in Częstochowa and Galeria Północna in Warsaw. In addition, Tesco announced the sale of their Polish business to Danish company, the Salling Group which also owns the Netto chain. The transaction, which includes the acquisition of 301 Tesco stores together with distribution centres and the company’s headquarters, totalled 900 million PLN. However, the deal is not classified as an investment transaction on the retail market”, comments Andrzej Bzowski, Senior Financial Analyst, JLL. In addition to the GTC share deal, several smaller transactions were signed in Q2, which involved the following as-

Andrzej Bzowski, Senior Financial Analyst, JLL

Anna Wysocka, Head of Retail Agency, JLL

The Warsaw Voice

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THE WAREHOUSE MARKET RESILIENT TO COVID-19 AXI IMMO presented the latest report „Polish Warehouse Market in H1 2020.”

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he Polish warehouse market maintained its robust momentum in the first half of 2020, with a record 2.38m sqm leased. Gross take-up in the second quarter of 2020 - during a time of strict Covid-19 lockdown measures - was as much as 50% higher compared to the same period in 2019, at 1.36m sqm.

Such good outcomes were the result of high demand for space on the back of booming e-commerce trade and numerous BTS transactions which commenced earlier in the year.

The warehouse real estate market has proved resilient to the global shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The volume of logistics investment transactions closed in the first half of the year stood at almost EUR1.2 billion and accounted for almost 40% of total investment into Polish commercial real estate.

Among the largest transactions carried out in Q2 2020 were a sale of Mszczonów Park (158,000 sqm) by P3 to Elite Partners Capital and a purchase of the Logistic City Piotrków (135,000 sqm) by Polish Logistics LLP, an investment platform established by REINO Capital, IO AM and Grosvenor Group.

Yields on big box assets currently stand at 6.25% while prime logistics assets in Warsaw-city fetch 5.5%. Yields remained unchanged in the first six months of the year due to the stable nature of the sector and robust occupier fundamentals combined with high investor demand.

“Although the real estate investment market in Poland is facing challenges in the near future, recent transactions give cause for optimism. Indeed, H1 2020 saw record investment volumes of around 1.2bn EUR. In the coming

Mszczonów Park complex

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The Warsaw Voice

Strong occupier demand on the warehouse market

The first half of 2020 saw record occupier activity. In that period, gross demand amounted to 2.38m sqm (+25% compared to H1 2019), led by Warsaw with 602.4k sqm leased, followed by Upper Silesia and Central Poland (396k sqm each) and Poznań (257k sqm). Moreover, 1.36m sqm of space was leased in Q2 2020 - 50% more than in Q2 2019.

In addition, short term leases amounting to 326k sqm were signed during the first half of the year – the highest level on record. New contracts and expansions accounted for 73% of overall take-up. The most active sectors in the H1 2020 were: logistics (25.5%), electronics (18%), retail (14.5%), e-commerce (14.4%) and production (7.5%).

“Tenant activity was very high in Q2 2020 due to a high number of BTS transactions that began earlier in the year and also – due to exceptionally high demand for space dedicated to e-commerce. Additionally, a record amount of space was leased on a short term basis - under 2 years - between April and June. A total of 262,000 sqm was subject to temporary leasing agreements. Some tenants decided to fulfil expansion plans partly through temporary leasing contracts, in anticipation of market conditions normalizing after the end of the Covid-19 lockdown period,” says Anna Głowacz, Head of Industrial and Logistics Agency, AXI IMMO. The largest leasing transaction of H1 was signed by an undisclosed e-commerce occupier at Panattoni BTS Świebodzin for over 200,000 sqm. Other notable deals included a 73,400 sqm lease by Euro Net at Prologis Park Janki, a new contract for 72,900 sqm signed by Amazon at Hillwood Łódź Górna, a lease by a clothing producer for 67,000 sqm at Panattoni Park Czeladź IV as well as a 51,900 sqm new lease by a confidential tenant at Exeter Park Stryków.

“One of the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is redefining the warehouse market in terms of online retail. Currently, we do not know the decisions of all the tenants, but we expect that a number of companies that will decide to exit their physical stores will still want to be present in the e-commerce channel. Therefore, a withdrawal from shopping centers or retail parks will not necessarily mean a company’s complete exit from the Polish market. This will provide a stimulus to the development of the warehouse sector, including smaller warehouse formats such as the SBU (Small Business Unit) projects, which offer not just warehouse space but also showroom space,” adds Anna Głowacz.

Will development activity decline in H2 2020?

During the first six months of the year, industrial developers completed a total of 1.1m sqm of space (+9.6% compared to H1 2019), raising the total warehouse stock in Poland to nearly 19.5m sqm (15.9% year on year). The highest level of completions was recorded in Warsaw (over 325,000 sqm), followed by Lower Silesia (200,000 sqm) and Upper SileThe Warsaw Voice

sia (192,000 sqm). The three the largest new completions of H1 2020 were Panattoni’s A2 Warsaw Park (103,670 sqm), P3’s PepsiCo BTS in Mszczonów (58,500 sqm) and Hillwood’s Wrocław East II (52,400 sqm).

In terms of the pipeline, 1.77m sqm of space was under construction as at the end of June (-24% year on year). The largest amount of space is currently under construction in Warsaw and Lower and Upper Silesia. Lower activity is driven by caution among developers due to uncertain market conditions. Developers have also become more reluctant to develop space on a speculative basis. The share of speculative space in total space under construction fell from 45.3% at the end of March 2020 to 33.6% at the end of June. More limited development resulted in a significant decrease in the amount of space available immediately.

The vacancy rate for the Polish market overall fell from 7.8% at the end of March 2020 to 6.8% at the end of June. The highest amount of space is available in Lower Silesia (10.1%), followed by Poznań (7.4%) and Central Poland (6.9%).

In terms of the smaller markets, high development activity is underway in Tricity where an equivalent of 29% of this market’s stock is under construction and Western Poland where the pipeline translates into 71% of this market’s current size.

REAL ESTATE

quarters, we are likely to experience further diversion of capital from the retail and office sectors to the warehouse sector. The availability of prime products on the market will remain a challenge”. says Renata Osiecka, Managing Partner, AXI IMMO.

Rental levels remain stable

Rental levels remained unchanged in most markets in the first half of 2020. Average headline rents in big box facilities range between EUR3.20 and EUR3.60 per sqm while Warsaw-city remains the most expensive logistics location in the country (starting from EUR4.8/sqm). Effective rents have decreased slightly during H1, mainly in the regions with high vacancy rates and a high level of competition between developers. The lowest effective rents are still available in the suburbs of Poznań and Warsaw (Błonie and Grodzisk Mazowiecki in the latter).

“We expect that total warehouse stock in Poland will exceed 20m sqm by the end of the year, but the number of speculative projects will be limited due to caution on the part of developers. The spotlight will be on the quality and financial stability of the occupier. Further declines in the amount of space available immediately can be expected. On the demand side, logistics firms and e-commerce players are likely to remain the most important sources of activity. Some occupiers will be concerned about the re-introduction of lockdown measures and may pre-emptively increase stockpiling to mitigate potential supply chain disruptions and delays in production,” summarizes Renata Osiecka.

ABOUT AXI IMMO

AXI IMMO offers commercial real estate advisory services in the areas of leasing and management of office and industrial space as well as acquisition and disposal of real estate assets and development land. The company also offers B2B and B2C supply chain management services. AXI IMMO’s biggest advantage is combining international standards of service with a thorough knowledge of the local market. The company received the award for the Best Local Agency in 2012-2019 and the Best Team for the industrial sector in 2016-2017 in the prestigious CiJ Awards organised by the CEE CiJ Journal magazine.

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OFFICE SPACE SECTOR IN POLAND IN THE FACE OF CORONAVIRUS The coronavirus pandemic has significantly influenced the preferences of office tenants, and the interest in flexible spaces in Poland does not slow down, it can even accelerate. This is just one of the takeaways on the future of offices from the debate entitled “Impacts of coronavirus on the office space market in Poland: The broker’s angle.”

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he event was hosted by Mindspace, a global operator of boutique flexible workspaces, included representatives of advisory agencies such as JLL, CBRE, Colliers International, and Cushman & Wakefield.

As Yotam Alroy, Co-founder and CBO of Mindspace, said at the beginning of the debate, “The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in both our lives and work environment. As a result of the coronavirus, most of us started working remotely. Therefore, a number of real property players - advisory agencies, owners, operators and office managers - have been asking themselves questions about the future of offices for several months now. Our observations show that during the pandemic, many companies began to treat flexible office space as an alternative to a traditional office. This is evidenced, among other things, by the growing interest among potential clients in spaces offered by Mindspace. This trend is also visible at our Warsaw branch, which strengthens my belief that the demand for flexible office space will continue to grow in Poland. We are forecasting a marked shift from the traditional lease model to flexible partnership-based agreements between operators and building owners. We also expect a major consolidation in the industry, i.e. a number of mergers and acquisitions. In our opinion, this will happen over the next 12 to 24 months.”

During the meeting, all speakers agreed that office tenants’ preferences were subject to change due to coronavirus.

The experts’ observations show that numerous companies have already made or are considering a decision as regards moving some of their branch offices or even head offices to 22

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flexible space with a view to optimizing their expenditures and the possibility of reducing or increasing the leased space at any time, without the need for long-term commitments.

Adam Lis, Flexible Office Solutions Manager at JLL, commented: “Undoubtedly, in these times of pandemic, the flexibility of lease agreements has gained increasing importance, also for the SME sector and corporate clients.

In these rather unpredictable times, short-term agreements, often with one month’s notice, have proved to be an ideal solution and can represent a lifeline for many companies.

This illustrates the value of flexibility for tenants, both small and large, and strengthens the position of flexible solutions in the commercial real estate property market.”

Yotam Alroy, Co-founder and CBO of Mindspace

The Warsaw Voice

REAL ESTATE

The “Impacts of coronavirus on the office space market in Poland: The broker’s angle” debate.

Adam Lis continued: “Landlords on the ‘traditional’ office market have been learning from flexible space operators about how to take care of their tenants and how to meet their ever-growing needs. Flexible space is a sign that the landlords’ perspective is changing from tenant-centric to human-centric. All of us, especially office workers, could benefit from this change.”

Konrad Szaruga, Head of Flexible Workplace at CBRE, remarked: “COVID-19 has left its mark on all segments of the real property market. As far as its impact on the market of flexible office space is concerned, we can see the strengthening of the current trend that it is an excellent solution for new companies, especially for foreign entities—taking into account a time horizon spanning from several months to two years. Secondly, we observe that flexible spaces are gaining ground among companies seeking both permanent headquarters and a temporary office to meet short-term needs. Here, we see very clear interest of companies that are unwilling or unable to work from home, but at the same time are currently unwilling to make long-term decisions due to the unstable market situation.”

In turn, according to Mikołaj Niemczycki, Capital Markets Associate at global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, the growing interest of office tenants in flexible space is mainly due to the changing expectations of their employees. As Niemczycki explained, “The pandemic has proven that home office is a solution that works not only temporarily. However, the natural challenges of working from home make you want to return to the office. What is more, the expectations of employees have changed, and today they expect greater freedom of choice in the place and form of work. In the coming years, the winners will be those employers who provide adequate infrastructure for employees who prefer to work from home or decide to open satellite offices, on the outskirts of cities or in residential areas. It is in these locations, offered on flexible lease terms, that we see the greatest potential for further development of the flexible office segment. Flexible offices can fill an important gap, responding to the new needs of employees.”

Renata Hartle, manager of Flex Office Strategy & Technology Solutions at Colliers International, stressed during The Warsaw Voice

the meeting that the coronavirus had significantly influenced not only employees’ expectations for their work environment, but also the daily operation of office facilities: “The COVID-19 pandemic definitely accelerated the implementation of technology-based solutions on the real property market. Desk reservation systems and occupancy rate analysis had been seen as a gadget in recent years. Today, however, they are becoming the most sought-after solutions to support returns to offices. At the top of the popularity list there are also technologies supporting contactless moving around within the space and flexible car park management.”

Michał Kwinta, Senior Community Manager at Mindspace Koszyki, said: “In fact, the coronavirus has significantly impacted workplaces. Although our strategy has not changed - we are still putting an emphasis on commercialization—today we have an additional task. We have to ensure Mindspace users a completely safe place. In the past months, we have done a lot of work at Mindspace Koszyki to adapt its space as quickly as possible to the new reality. Our priority has been to provide a healthy and professional workspace to our members and their guests. Today, I can truly confirm that flexibility is what we are best at.”

About Mindspace

Mindspace is a global provider of boutique flex spaces redefining the workplace experience for companies of all sizes.

Their beautifully designed spaces, personalized level of service and carefully curated events foster enhanced employee engagement and a strong sense of community, accommodating the way people now work, learn, innovate and grow.

Mindspace has a total of 31 locations in 16 cities and 7 countries across Europe (Poland, Germany, Romania, UK, Netherlands), the United States and Israel. Members of the Mindspace community can use any other location around the world at no additional cost.

The Warsaw branch of Mindspace is an office complex directly adjacent to Hala Koszyki. The offices are located on four floors of the office building at ul. Koszykowa 61 and on two floors in the tower at ul. Koszykowa 65. In total, 750 members can work in both locations, in nearly 5,500 m2.

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GREAT 1 2

3

1/ Kosmonauta Watch

The collection offered by Polish watch company G. Gerlach includes the Kosmonauta (Cosmonaut) model. This outstanding piece comes with an old-fashioned LED display. In the 1970s this watch was made by Polish electronic firm Unitra Warel from Warsaw, and was very hard to obtain on the Polish market at the time. It went down in history thanks to Poland’s first astronaut, Mirosław Hermaszewski, who wore it in space. The present-day version of the Kosmonauta model is inspired by the old one, but regardless of this inspiration it features a modern style and top quality. The stainless steel case and bracelet provide a nice contrast to the dark red sapphire glass. The electronic part of the 24

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watch was made specially for this outstanding model.

2/ Continental PremiumContact 6: “Best in Test”

”Highly balanced performance. Dynamic handling with precise steering, short braking distances, very high mileage and high economy,” is how German automotive magazine Auto Bild describes the strengths of the PremiumContact™ 6.

The Continental summer tire came first with a “very good” rating and was the only product to receive the “Best-in-Test” and “Eco-Champion” titles for the most profitable product. In the world’s largest summer tire test, the experts tested 50 tire models that fit many mid-range and higher-class cars. The Continental Premi-

umContact 6 is produced in a very wide range of sizes and is approved for speeds up to 300 km/h.

3/ Juicer Kuvings Evo820 Plus

Evo820 Plus is cutting-edge and the most durable low-speed juicer on the Polish market. Practical casing allows to reduce the time of preparation healthy juice. Beyond functionality it has elegant appearance and it will be a stylish addition for every kitchen. Enclosure is available with four colors - white, “champagne”, grafit and red. Kuvings brand received many designers rewards for this model of juicer.

Juicer Evo820 Plus gained recognition of Polish customers. Kuvings won Golden Consumer Laurel in category of juicers five times in a row.

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GEAR 6 4

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4/ Realme X50 Pro

The Realme X50 Pro is a smartphone with a 6.4” screen and resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels. The super Amoled panel is protected

by Gorilla Glass 5. The device has a camera with four lenses with resolutions of 64, 12, 8 and 2 Mpix. What distinguishes the X50 Pro most is its 5G network support, the 65-watt charger that will charge a 4200 mAh battery in 35 minutes, and the use of a Snapdragon 865 5G processor, which allows you to accelerate graphics by 25% while saving up to 30% of power compared to earlier-generation processors. The Realme X50 Pro smartphone has two SIM card slots.

5/ Grill without smoke

LotusGrill brand is thinking about people who don’t want or just cannot use tradiThe Warsaw Voice

tional barbecue and proposes innovative solution. It’s multifunctional device for healthy food from the barbecue. Ecological grill is powered by coal and there is no smoke. You can use this device on your balcony or terrace, camping or even on boat. You don’t need unusual fuel like charcoal or briquette to run the barbecue. It’s very easy to fire up and keep it clean for most of time. It is equipped with function of temperature adjustment and air blowing. Barbecue doesn’t release carcinogenic substances. The main advantage of this device is that you can easily put it in the middle of table with no consequences. There’s nothing more satisfying than preparing dishes with your friends.

The customer receives a 5 year guarantee so it’s investment for a long time. Lotus-

Grill is available in many colors, sizes and with a lots of accessories.

6/ Woodpecker

Woodpecker Q3 and Q7 plasma air purifiers operate on the principle of air decontamination. They use high-energy plasma technology in the process of continuous disinfection, thus ensuring pathogen-free air. They work throughout the room, not locally as with germicidal lamps using UV radiation. Plasma purification technology is 6-8 times more effective than traditional electrostatic disinfection. The Q3 plasma cleaner will quickly and most effectively remove bacteria and viruses in areas up to 40 sq. m in size, while the Q7 model is ideal for sterilizing rooms up to 110 sq. m.

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THE A journey to pre-war center of Jewish life T

he exhibition “Here is Muranów” at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews presents the unique, multi-layered history of the Muranów residential district of Warsaw and reveals unknown dimensions of the past, present and future of the city and its residents. It takes visitors on a stroll in the former Northern Quarter which was the center of Jewish life before World War Two, when the Polish capital was home to the largest Jewish diaspora

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in Europe. During the war, the Nazi Germans turned it into the largest ghetto in occupied Europe, and later razed it to the ground.

The story of Muranów is told through the experiences of its inhabitants from four periods: until 1939, during World War II, during the rebuilding of the district, and nowadays.

“The exhibition looks at thirteen selected locations in the district, some of which still function in an almost unchanged form, and some of which no trace remains,” says Kamila Radecka-Mikulicz, curator of the exhibition. It shows everyday objects, photos, postcards, press articles and film recordings illustrating the history of individual places in the periods mentioned. “We tell about each of these places in a form that resembles the advertising posts that have not changed since the 19th century, thanks to which we can look into the history of the city, winding or unwinding the clock of history,” Radecka-Mikulicz says.

The visitors are also able to walk around the installation evoking the spirit of pre-war Nalewki, a vibrant commercial street, comparable to today’s Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw, with its hustle and bustle and a variety of stores, goods and services available. They can learn about the dramatic fate of Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto established in the district. They can find out how the urban planners reconstructing the capital city envisaged a new Modernist housing estate on the rubble of pre-war Warsaw, and even how children played in the courtyards of postwar Muranów.

The Warsaw Voice

BUZZ Art of humor

“Crack Up-Crack Down”, an exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art is a global overview of satire as a graphic genre, showing how humor has evolved over last decades with political shifts and technological development.

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ts first edition was presented at the 33rd Biennial of Graphic Art in Ljubljana. The Warsaw project was expanded to include new Polish contexts.

Comedic expression is known to bloom particularly under authoritarian regimes, as was the case with the rich tradition of communist humor in Central and Eastern Europe, or the many examples from the Middle East. Satire can also be a tool of ideology even if it is well-fitted to unmask the mechanisms of authority. In the times of post-truth, it becomes a litmus paper of the public mood.

Put together by the art collective Slavs and Tatars, the exhibition showcases both historical and contemporary works, including bantering drawings, activist interventions, ironic memes, satirical magazines, and academic elaborations.

Slavs and Tatars have not reduced graphic art to the mere role of a “medium” but have granted it agency. At the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for ConThe Warsaw Voice

temporary Art, the collective presents a broad spectrum of works by artists from Slovenia, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, but also China, Iran, UK, and the US.

Polish artists include Bolesław Chromry, Rafał Dominik, Jana Shostak and Jacqueline Sobiszewski.

Until October 11.

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Cult comic book made into a musical W

arsaw’s Syrena Theater is staging a new musical theater performance entitled ‘Captain Żbik and Yellow Saturator’. The production is based on a Polish comic book series, very popular in the 1970’s, about the adventures of a crime-solving officer of Milicja Obywatelska, the national police organization in the PRL (Poland under communist regime).

The concept and script of Captain Żbik, specially commissioned by the Syrena, was written by an acclaimed musical theater director Wojciech Kościelniak. Praised by critics for creating his own style of musical theater and lifting the Polish musical to a high artistic level, he is also the director of the performance.

Kościelniak previously collaborated with Syrena when staging a very successful Hallo Szpicbródka (Hello, Fred the Beard),

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a music theater version of the Polish movie which was a big hit in the 1980s.

Captain Żbik, a two-act show is not only pure entertainment full of great music and dance but also has a cognitive value. It shows, in an attractive way, Warsaw in the 1970s and life in Poland under the communist regime.

The style of acting, costumes and set design draw from the conventions found in the film “Grand Budapest Hotel”.

Dynamic music inspired by music style of the 70s was written by a jazz pianist, composer and arranger Mariusz Obijalski.

The set and costumes were designed

by Anna Chadaj and the choreography by Ewelina Adamska-Porczyk.

The cast includes Maciej Maciejewski/ Łukasz Szczepanik as Captain Żbik, Iga Rudnicka, Ada Szczepaniak, Albert Osik Tomasz Więcek, Barbara Garstka and Karolina Gwóźdź.

The Warsaw Voice

THE BUZZ

LIFESTYLE

Restoring memory of

Polish-Soviet War T

he exhibition “1920 War: a Photographic Account” at the National Museum in Warsaw, was prepared on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw which resulted in a decisive Polish victory over Bolsheviks in 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War. It is an attempt to restore the collective memory of the image of that dramatic period.

The photographs displayed at the National Museum depict everyday life during the war, private and official, taken by professional photographers and amateurs, by military and civilians.

Photographic testimonies of the Polish-Bolshevik war have not been recorded in the minds of Poles, although many photos commemorating the events of 1919-1921 have survived, according to Karolina Puchała-Rojek, curator of the exhibition.

“For the first time in such a large selection, original photos and albums from the period will be shown to the public. We are showing what are almost exclusively period prints, exposed and developed almost as long ago as the events they represent occurred. Their condition and format bear witness to the technological advancement of the era’s photography.

For the first time in an exhibition space we are also presenting photo-books in their original form,” she says.

All these accounts comprise a catalogue of familiar themes of war photography: portraits of soldiers, both men and women (who for the first time The Warsaw Voice

were formally allowed to fight), scenes of recruitment, exercises, marches and regroupings, lulls and daily life on the front, and finally the consequences of war - wreckage, prisoners, the wounded, the dead, but also scenes of welcoming, of medal-awarding and commemoration ceremonies.

Among photographic accounts of the conflict there are propaganda pictures, taken for the deliberate and explicit purpose of being published in the press, and private ones, originally not meant to be viewed outside the photographer’s circle

of family members and friends. Examples of the former are on show in unusually high numbers, as an extensive selection from the Warsaw Photographic Agency’s collection of photographs documenting the events of 1920, acquired by the National Museum in Warsaw as early as May 1921.

Film footage, both staged and documentary, features importantly in the exhibition scenario. Excerpts from various 1920s movies are shown, including the recently restored full-length documentary, Polonia Restituta (1928).

Until November 15.

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Birthday exhibition at the Center for

Contemporary Art T

he title of the exhibition “Far Too Many Stories to Fit into so Small a Box” was inspired by the inscription that Lawrence Weiner placed on the facade of the Ujazdowski Castle in the mid-90s. His sentence, which sounded slightly different: Far Too Many Things to Fit into so Small a Box, became an unofficial motto of the institution which organizes dozens of events every year.

The first director of the CSW’s Wojciech Krukowski created an original formula of the institution based on a multidisciplinary approach to art. Contemporary artists he invited made the place become a true nucleus of alternative art movement.

The Dutch duo based their concept of the jubilee exhibition not only on archives and works from the center’s collection, but also on a very extensive performance

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Center for Contemporary Art - Ujazdowski Castle (CSW) in Warsaw, the Dutch artistic duo Bik Van der Pol created a project telling about the unique character of this place. program, prepared especially for the occasion.

The performers tell stories of individual objects of art. The performance script is dynamic and the audience can modify it according to their own impressions, experience, memories of the CSW’s beginnings, exhibitions, artists and their works.

The birthday project features objects, installations, and videos of artists such as Nan Goldin, Natalia LL, Oleg Kulig, Joanna Rajkowska, Zbigniew Libera, Alina Szapocznikow, Martin Creed, Jenny Holzer and many others.

Some, such as blue transparent foils on the windows of David Hammons from the 2000 Real Time exhibition again add a mysterious glow to the gallery interior.

Some, like messages written in pencil on the walls by Yoko Ono during the performance accompanying her 2008 exhibition are still readable and say a lot about the place. ”Many rooms, many dreams, many countries in the same space.”

Photo: Pat Mic

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The Warsaw Voice

THE BUZZ

LIFESTYLE

Man of La Mancha at Dramatyczny theater

Warsaw’s Dramatyczny theater is staging a musical Man of La Mancha, inspired by Cervantes’ epic 17th-century novel, Don Quixote.

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Broadway hit composed Mitch Leigh, with a book

by Dale Wasserman and Lyrics by Joe Darion is one of the most touching stories about faith in ideals, selfless sacrifice, the power of imagination and the right of every human being to freedom and dreams. Its unique charm is created by music in the rhythms of Andalusian flamenco and melodious songs by Darion.

Man of La Mancha tells the story of the fearless Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners, as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The noble and righteous knight sets off on a journey carried by a desire to help others and defend the weak. Experiencing occasional failures, he is mocked by others, who see him as a madman. Faithful to his beliefs, however, he does not leave the once chosen path.

The question remains who is mad, the one who wants to fix wrongs or the one sees the world as obvious?

Leigh’s musical has been enjoying great success for years and is played all over the world, thanks to the timeless wisdom of Cervantes and beautiful music.

The original 1965 Broadway production ran for more than 2,000 performances and has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.

The Warsaw Voice

Warsaw cast includes Modest Ruciński as Cervantes / Alonso Quixano/ Don Quixote, Krzysztof Szczepaniak as Squire / Sancho Pansa and Anna Gajewska as Aldonza/Dulcinea, as well as Tomasz Budyta, Waldemar Barwiński, Anna Gorajska

and Mariusz Drężek.

The music is performed live by the orchestra conducted by Adam Sztaba, the performance’s music director. The set and costumes were designed by Ewa Gdowiak and the choreography by Anna Iberszer.

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Original, Replica or Copy?

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eonardiana in Polish collections,” exhibition at the Museum of King Jan III’s Palace in Warsaw-Wilanów is part of the “What’s What: Original, Replica, Copy” cycle. Organized in cooperation with the Leonardo da Vinci Society and after consultations with the National Gallery in London as well as many other museums around the world it aims to show the “myth of Leonardo” in the context of collectors’ interests and fascinations.

Referring to the heritage of Leonardo da Vinci, the exhibition presents 39 artistic objects from various Polish collections, including six paintings as well as graphic works and drawings corresponding in terms of form and content with The Savior of the World (Salvator Mundi) painting from the museum’s collection.

The painting was in 1798, the time of purchase, considered to be the original work of Leonardo da Vinci. Today, more than a dozen paintings of such composition, created in the 16th century, are known and the one Wilanów has long been a subject of historical and conservation research carried out in cooperation with research centers in Poland and abroad.

A separate element of the exhibition is the demonstration of technologically advanced methods and results of image research and ways for assessing their age.

Until October 15.

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The Warsaw Voice

THE BUZZ

LIFESTYLE

Warsaw Chamber Opera stages

Piazzolla’s masterpiece „Maria de Buenos Aires,” a tango operita with music by Astor Piazzolla and libretto

by Horacio Ferrer premiered at Warsaw Chamber Opera’s Basen Artystyczny Stage.

T

his arguably Piazzolla’s greatest masterpiece is a surreal spiritual journey through the world of human emotions and passions, set to the beat of the Nuevo tango.

It tells the story of a woman from Buenos Aires called Maria who, enchanted by music and tango passes into the dark side. The protagonist is a personification of both love and the denial of human feelings.

The plot comes full circle and everything that happens between the birth and death of the heroine is a reflection of the world with its bright and dark sides, beauty and evil, purity and scandal.

The performance is a real feast of rhythm, sensual dance, trembling emotions and human weaknesses translated into music notes and phrases. The music enchants the audience with its compelling rhythm and provokes a symbolic look into the depths of human feelings.

A team of renowned producers and artists responsible for the project include opera director Michał Znaniecki, stage designer, Luigi Scoglio and the sensational Tango Attack ensemble under the baton of Hadrian Tabęcki.

Cast: Marek Kaliszuk/Darek Niebudek (El Duende), Alicja WęgorzewsThe Warsaw Voice

ka/Gosha Kowalinska (María, La Sombra de María), Mikołaj Adamczak (Tre Voci)/Hubert Stolarski (La Voz de un Payador/ Una Voz de Ese Domingo), Miłosz Gałaj (Tre Voci)/Andres Martorell (Porteño Gorrión con Sueño/Analista Primero), Wojtek Soko Sokolnicki (Tre Voci)/Paweł Strymiński (Ladrón Antiguo Mayo).

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Meet the designer of Poland’s memorable logo

The Poster Museum in Warsaw Wilanów is hosting a retrospective exhibition of works by Jerzy Treutler, a recognized and award-winning Polish graphic artist and designer.

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reutler’s name was popularized in 1958 when he created the iconic logo of Moda Polska, the stateowned fashion company, widely known as “swallow.” This sign has been cited as an example of one of the best trademark design in the history of Polish applied graphics.

The present exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation of Treutler’s artistic output. It showcases 400 of his works including 130 film, exhibition and circus posters, book layouts and cover designs, photographs, press illustrations, satirical drawings, sketches, bookplates and private documents.

“It is an overview of the achievements of a versatile, disciplined artist, but creating with energy and enthusiasm, ‘with the cheek‘ as the artist himself used to say, says Ewa Reeves, the curator of the exhibition.

In her opinion, the secret and power of this “excellent draftsman’s work” lies 34

Autumn 2020

in the “extraordinary line” he used and therefore “drawing is the compositional axis and an idea organizing the present exhibition.”

Treutler’s works has been presented at collective exhibitions of Polish posters in over 20 countries in Europe and beyond.

Until November 15.

The Warsaw Voice

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LIFESTYLE

Discomfort of closeness in focus The recently-opened exhibition Frowst at Zacheta National Gallery of Art is Poland’s first comprehensive monographic presentation of Joanna Piotrowska’s works from the past few years.

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aving exhibitions in leading art institutions all over the world (including Tate Britain in London or MoMA in New York) to her credit, Piotrowska is today one of the most important Polish artists of the younger generation.

In her staged photos and videos, the artist focuses on exploring human relationships and their bodily expression.

She looks at characters entangled in the context of social institutions, struggling with manifestations of power, emotional dependencies and the violent element of human nature. She is interested in the family, security, home and homelessness, the position of a woman and the psychology and politics of girl rebellion, as well as the human need to control and dominate animals. Her black-andwhite, handmade, gelatin silver prints and videos on 16 mm tape are more of a record of performance or spectacle than a documentary.

The title of the exhibition was taken from one of Piotrowska’s first photographic series (2013–2014), which brought her international recognition.

“Frowst” (in other words, suffocation, mustiness) brings to mind the dense air of an unaired-out apartment, saturated with complicated family relationships.

The series was inspired by the pseudo-scientific, manipulative method of “organising tangled and broken family ties” developed by German psychotherapist Bert Hellinger. Based on the observation of body positions and gestures, The Warsaw Voice

the tense, staged photographs showing family systems of dependencies were created.

Under the influence of texts by the American feminist and developmental psychologist Carol Gilligan, who dealt with the issues of women’s voice and resistance, a series of photographs (2015) was created, presenting teenage girls in poses taken from self-defence textbooks.

These works refer to the ubiquitous, structural and physical violence against women, but they are also a story of a rebellion of women and girls against a culturally sanctioned narrative that disciplines women.

The exhibition presents the latest series documenting cages and enclosures for animals in zoos, arranged on the model of human residential architecture (2019). These photographs reveal the dominance of humans over the animal world, the need for control, the lust for power and the fear of the Other. Piotrowska also started to photograph objects used for playing and stimulating animals (2019) which look like instruments of torture, medical instruments or erotic fetishes.

The exhibition closes with a photographic project from 2017. Piotrowska asked her friends from Warsaw, London, Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro to build hiding places in their apartments, safe, intimate shelters. The impermanent constructions depicted in the photographs speak of the temporality and conventionality of the home, understood both as a building and as a system of inter-

personal relations. The work combines the innocence of children’s games with the gravity of the problem of seeking physical and emotional refuge. The artist touches upon the topic of safety and lack thereof, but also upon the fragility of material comfort. It turns out that it is impossible to build a true refuge from the piles of things we own.

Until December 6.

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Daily life in

Warsaw Ghetto in images M

ore than 70 archival images with historical commentaries, presented on 20 boards, show the “normal” day in the life of the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Europe established by Nazi Germans in the fall of 1940.

The displayed photo reproductions come from the collections of the most important institutions conducting research on Holocaust, including the Washington-based United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the Jewish Historical Institute, as well as from the German Bundesarchiv and the Austrian National Library.

The exhibition showcases portraits and general plans with daily crowds in the streets and markets of the ghetto, people organizing self-help, creating art, working and praying.

“We avoid drastic images in order to show our heroes in a dignified way. We see them not only as victims, but, first and foremost, people who, despite the extreme conditions, are trying to maintain the last remains of normal life,” says the curator of the project, Rafał Kosewski.

In his opinion, “focusing on the faces, sometimes smiling, hoping to survive, sometimes full of reflection, as if having a sense of impending death, emaciated, starved and desperate, enables the contemporary audience to have a deep, empathetic contact with Warsaw Jews, who in September in 1939, constituted a third of the capital’s population. “ A large part of the photographs presented were taken by the German soldiers of Propaganda-Kompanie 689, German Army propaganda unit stationed in 36

Autumn 2020

The open-air exhibition “One in Three” at the Grzybowski Square prepared by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum on the 77th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the 80th anniversary of the closing of the ghetto borders, which falls in November 2020.

Warsaw in 1943 - Albert Cusian, Erhard Josef Knobloch and Joe Heydecker - documenting the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Despite the fact that the vast majority of these photographs were taken for the purposes of propaganda, they also document the misery of the Ghetto.

In addition to the scenes from everyday Ghetto life, the exhibition presents major historical events, such as, the so-called Grossaktion Warsaw (the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto beginning 22 July 1942) and the Uprising of 1943. It also discusses various examples of social and economic life, from the organisation of home committees or charitable institutions to smuggling - an important element of the Ghetto’s economy.

Until November 30.

Photo: WGM

The Warsaw Voice

THE BUZZ

Polish spirit

LIFESTYLE

of independence

shown through personal stories T

he “Generations of Freedom” exhibition in the courtyard of Warsaw’s Royal Castle tells the stories of five Polish families who gave their lives for their country in the last century.

“It’s a small exhibition about great people to whom we owe a free and independent Poland,” said Jarosław Szarek, President of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which organized of the exhibition.

Photo: IPN

The Warsaw Voice

The IPN project honors the memory of the Gwoździewicz, Kulesza, Lazarowicz, Magierski and Majdzik families who fought for Poland’s freedom in various periods of the country’s history.

“The story of undefeated Poland lasted from generation to generation.

It was mothers and fathers who passed on our proud, victorious history to their children,” Szarek said. “It was an uninterrupted chain of intergenerational struggles for an independent Poland, the last act of which was ‘Solidarity,’” he added.

The exhibition commemorates three generations of Polish freedom fighters. The first struggled for an independent Poland, in the Polish Legions, in the Polish-Soviet War and in the 1920 Battle of Warsaw defended it against the Bolshevik invasion. The second fought, in the Home Army, the Polish Underground State, against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, during World War II and in the subsequent resistance against communist enslavement.

The third generation came during the time of the Solidarity struggle in the 1980’s” which paved the way to the collapse of communism and the rebirth of the Republic of Poland.

Until October 4.

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Fragrance for charity Michał Missala, co-owner of Quality Missala Perfumery stores specializing in luxurious, niche brands spoke about his latest perfume project with the Warsaw Voice.

Y

ou co-created ‘Music’, a bespoke fragrance for Poland’s largest annual fundraising initiative, known as the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP). How did this unusual concept come about?

It was a spontaneous idea. Last year, I met Jurek and Lidia Owsiak, founders of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity foundation at an event where they were receiving another award for their activities. When Jurek found out that my family was involved in the perfume business, he told me he had been thinking of making a fragrance inspired by the Pol’and’Rock festival. This event, billed as the biggest open-air festival in Europe, is organized by WOŚP every summer to thank people for their support in the winter public fundraiser. I immediately picked up the topic and had in my head the key notes for the fragrance.

Next time we met in our perfumery in Bemowo and we showed them oils from our perfumer’s organ, a palette of ingredients from which fragrances are composed. At that time, we were beginning to have some idea of the fragrance and prepared a few preliminary proposals for the composition. After a series of further meetings and consultations, 38

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one of the proposals was approved by the WOŚP team.

What ingredients were included in the composition accepted?

From the very beginning, I had in my mind those essential notes that had to be included in the fragrance, namely vetiver and patchouli, as they perfectly fit in the whole concept. These are two earthy notes and the Pol’and’Rock brings to mind the smell of trampled on earth, dust, mud and the surrounding nature.

Patchouli also has connotations with the hippie generation and the original Wood-

stock festival, whose continuation the Pol ‘and’ rock festival aims to be. Both ingredient also fit the climate of World Music whose elements appear at the festival. Vetiver is associated with the Caribbean and Haiti, patchouli with India and Indonesia.

Other ingredients I had somewhere in the back of my head, though they were not crucial, were black pepper and grapefruit. Pepper was to add a bit of a temperament and grapefruit to expose the positive energy of the whole Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity phenomenon. Moreover, as it often rains during the festival, the cooling effect of

THE FRAGRANCE WAS ALSO INTENDED AS A GIFT FOR WOŚP PARTNERS AND SPONSORS. AS IT LATER TURNED OUT, OLGA TOKARCZUK, WHO HAD DONATED HER NOBEL PRIZE REPLICA TO A CHARITY AUCTION DURING LAST-YEAR’S WOŚP GRAND FINALE, GOT THE FIRST FLACON. The Warsaw Voice

THE BUZZ

LIFESTYLE

both components highlighted this little nuance in the fragrance. There was also some oud there, but only a little so that it could also appeal to those less experienced in using niche perfumes.

How did the very process of fragrance creation look like?

I sent the original composition made with our ingredients to a number of perfumers, along with a detailed description of what the perfume should be like, a socalled perfume brief, and a request for three versions. One of them was to be pretty close to our proposal and two others were to be the perfumer’s interpretation of the theme.

When we received the proposals from various perfumers, several of them were taken to the festival and the final choice was made by its participants.

The winning sample, which came from a young French perfumer Douglas Morel, was in fact the rendition of our original concept. This fact makes me feel the co-creator of this fragrance, whose production version is quite close to the initial composition prepared here, on site. It is worth adding here that the production took place in Poland. So as yet, this is one of the few niche fragrances made in Poland.

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As you said before, it was meant as an exclusive fragrance but not solely for connoisseurs.

On the one hand, we wanted it to be a fragrance for young people, but not completely, elegant and niche, but not extremely niche so that it would appeal equally to those who come to the festival and those who want to support WOŚP charity through its purchase in the foundation’s online store. The fragrance was also intended as a gift for WOŚP partners and sponsors. As it later turned out, Olga Tokarczuk, who had donated her Nobel Prize replica to a charity auction during last-year’s WOŚP grand finale, got the first flacon.

also to refer to the natural environment which is part of the festival’s design. And for the Polish-made fragrance we decided to go for Polish wood and chose an oak. As for the other elements, the heart decorating the bottle is the iconic, well known symbol of WOŚP. Apparently Music is selling well.

As far as I know, most of the first batch has already sold out during the grand finale. As we wanted to create high-quality fragrance we didn’t save on the ingredients. It has a finely-designed composition and a very high concentration of perfume extract, 25 percent. Considering its attractive price-tag, I would say it’s great value for money.

Who designed the packaging?

The external box is Jurek’s design.

Maybe not everyone knows, Jurek has artistic roots and was once involved in the stained glass creation. He wanted the packaging to be fairly simple and unpretentious. One of his ideas was to make the perfume bottle look like a loudspeaker. So we proposed a simple cuboid for the shape and suggested to combine a dark bottle with wooden cap. We not only wanted to be modern and eco-friendly by not using plastic but

Is it true there will be other editions of this likely to be unique world project?

Yes there were such prompts. The name of this fragrance was my idea, inspired by the slogan of the Pol’and’Rock festival ‘love, friendship & music’. We thought it would be good to start with music, but if more fragrances were to be created then they should also refer to this slogan. So it cannot be ruled out that at least two more fragrances will be made for WOŚP in the coming years.

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THE BUZZ BUTIK

3

1

2

1/ Iconic Mood Watch is back

An American watch and lifestyle company Fossil has re-launched a chic and modern version of its popular classic model of Mood Watch.

As part of the collectible Archival Series, the watch features the signature color-changing dial and mood decoder based on the wearer’s heart rate. The back of the watch is engraved with each mood color’s meaning. Black stands for anxiousness or excitement, blue green for calmness and relaxation, dark blue for happiness and love, green for sensitivity, amber green for uneasiness, and amber for nervousness.

The classic silhouette stays modern with a look that combines minimalist design and maximum style. It is available in a black-on-black 42 mm steel plated case or 32 mm rose gold-tone case that comes 40

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with black leather straps.

Each watch is individually numbered, packaged in a smiley face-covered tin can package. www.fossil.com

2/ Ultimate male scent

Vetiver pour Homme is a masculine perfume by Roja Dove.

A warm, dry, fresh, and spicy Chypré fragrance is centered around the sultry smokiness of Vetiver. It is freshened by citrusy green notes such as bergamot, lemon and litsea cubeba, while amplified by a spicy blend of pepper, pink pepper, nutmeg and caraway. Cedarwood and cedar needles are underscored by the dry scent of oakmoss and leather-like cistus and labdanum for a lingering finish. www.missala.pl

3/ Three-dimensional skin pampering

Menard Cosmetic Japan has recently released a new version of their COLAX revitalizing serum for face, enhanced with 3D Modeled Collagen with excellent skin absorption. Derived from shark fin and specific cleavage enzymes, this type of collagen is rich in glycinoproline (GP) which increases the filling, firmness and hydration of the skin, giving it a three-dimensionally tightened appearance. It also stimulates natural collagen production and binding.

The formula is enriched with hyaluronic acid to maintain the necessary moisture level of the skin.

For maximum indulging experience, the serum has a luxurious, rich texture and a light and refreshing scent of floral bouquet.

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IT WAS MEANT TO GO SO WELL...

For the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the Covid-19 pandemic may prove to offer a way out in explaining many unfulfilled or delayed economic and social plans.

One of them was Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s boisterous announcement of a great electromobility project and “a million electric cars by 2025.”

by Bartosz Grzybiński

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he Act on Electromobility and Alternative Fuels came into force at the end of February 2018. According to the Ministry of Energy, which prepared the draft, the main objective of the act was to popularize electric vehicles and transport using alternative fuels in Poland. During press conferences organized at the time and in many official government studies, e.g. Energy Policy of Poland until 2040, Morawiecki announced that Poland would soon become a “powerhouse of electromobility,” and by 2025 there would be 1 million electric cars on Polish roads.

For this purpose, special laws were to be prepared in a short time to subsidize the purchase of such cars or the deduction of VAT. According to regulations from 2019, co-financing from the Low-Emissions Transport Fund was to amount to 30 percent of the car price, but no more than PLN 37,500, with a maximum vehicle price of PLN 125,000.

Today it is clear that these plans were just more propaganda fireworks of the Polish prime minister and government. This is confirmed by the current position of the Ministry of State Assets. In the document Sustainable Transport Strategy until 2030, the ministry reduces the estimates from the PM’s announcement. Now it is no longer about a million cars by 2025, but about 600,000 by 2030. Interestingly, this figure includes not only fully electric cars but also plug-in hybrids, i.e. vehicles with an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, with the possibility of recharging the electric battery from a socket.

Shortly before the presidential election, the long-promised subsidies finally started, but in a very limited form.

Applications for subsidies for the purchase of electric cars from three programs: for private cars, for delivery vans and for companies with passenger transport licenses, can be submitted on the website of the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW). Before submitting them, the beneficiaries must register on the fund’s website, and the deadline is July 31, or sooner if the funds are exhausted (about PLN The Warsaw Voice

150 million). The NFOŚiGW will pay the largest amount of subsidies for the purchase of electric vans (up to PLN 70,000) and taxis (up to PLN 25,000). The subsidy for electric cars for private use will not exceed PLN 18,750.

That is half of the amount originally assumed: not 30 percent, but 15 percent of the car price.

As consolation for those interested in purchasing an electric car, it will still be possible to deduct the excise duty, but this will be applicable only until the end of this year.

What about other announcements related to transport in Poland? Things are looking well and, as always, the government is optimistic. The cabinet’s plans include the construction of 100 new ring roads, 80 bridges, a passenger ferry from the shipyard in Szczecin, a cross-cut of the Vistula Spit, and the flagship project: the Central Transport Hub (CPK), which is to combine an airport with a railway and road junction and is located about 40 km west of Warsaw. The government plenipotentiary for CPK construction is convinced that the first planes will already appear there in 2027. Considering the experience so far, for example in introducing electromobility in Poland, there is a lot to be doubtful about.

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HEAD-SPINNING ELECTRIC CARS

According to the SAMAR Automotive Market Research Institute, at the end of last year there were 10,232 vehicles with alternative drive registered in Poland. Approximately half of them were electric cars, the other half were plug-in hybrids (with the possibility of charging from sockets) and models powered by gas (CNG) or hydrogen.

by Bartosz Grzybiński

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ales of electric vehicles are growing all over the world, and Poland is no exception. Although they accounted for only a fraction (0.7 percent) of the total number of cars sold on the Polish automotive market last year, they are still noteworthy because, unlike in most other European countries, buyers cannot expect any real state support. In a situation where these cars are still much more expensive than models powered by internal combustion engines, and given that the government is working another year in a row to prepare or improve laws and fiscal proposals to encourage their purchase and use, even these few thousand “electrics” seems to be a large number.

Interestingly, despite a decline in car sales in Poland between January and May 2020 (-38.26 percent compared to the same period of last year), the percentage share of sales of electric cars has increased as the only one among all the automotive segments. From January to May 2020,

THERE IS EVERY INDICATION THAT THE DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE ELECTRIC CAR MARKET IS A CONSTANT AND MOST LIKELY IRREVERSIBLE TREND IN THE HISTORY OF MOTORIZATION. 42

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917 electric cars were sold in Poland (compared to 860 in January-May 2019), which might not seem like a lot, but compared to the whole automotive market, which is seeing unprecedented several dozen-percent drops in sales not only in Poland but also worldwide, this is the only segment that has a global upward trend.

What makes electric cars sell in Poland despite a higher purchase price, the practical lack of legal and fiscal support, and poor infrastructure, including few charging stations? Maybe it is a question of fashion, maybe society’s growing environmental awareness, maybe part of the image policy of companies and institutions which constitute almost 70 percent of buyers on the Polish market? Probably a little of everything. The effect is that there are more and more electric models on Polish roads and streets. Significantly, today they are offered in practically all the automotive segments, starting from the ultra-urban, two-seater electric ForTwo Smart, through urban cars such as the Renault ZOE, Skoda CITIGO-e and Volkswagen iD3, the compact class represented by the Nissan Leaf and Volkswagen e-Golf, crossovers such as the electric Hyundai Kona and KIA e-Niro, SUVs like the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-Tron, to sports cars (!) like the Porsche Taycan.

That’s not all. More and more companies offer fully electric trucks and vans such as the Renault Master ZE, Volkswagen e-Crafter and Nissan e-NV200.

There is every indication that the dynamic development of the electric car market is a constant and most likely irreversible trend in the history of motorization. And it’s a trend that we are lucky to be witnessing.

Below, in no particular order, are just a few examples from the increasingly wide range of electric cars available on the Polish automotive market.

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Renault ZOE

The Renault ZOE is a 5-door urban class (B) hatchback. It debuted on the market in 2012. In the fall of 2019 it underwent a thorough modernization. The model is 4.08 m long and has a 2.58 m wheelbase. The capacity of the trunk is 338 l. The lithium-ion battery has a capacity of 22 kWh. The 88 hp electric motor allows you to accelerate to 100 km/h in 13.5 seconds and drive at a maximum speed of 135 km/h. The maximum range is about 400 km. The new ZOE has a modernized interior, the upholstery is made of recycled materials. There is also an urban driving mode: B-mode (power recovery control). An older version of the engine (108 hp) will remain in the offer, also combined with a bigger battery. As standard, the ZOE is equipped with ABS with EBD, front and side airbags, automatic emergency brake lights, ESC, ASR and CSV, Isofix, automatic air conditioning, electric windscreen control, an R-Link multimedia system with a 7-inch touch screen, satellite navigation, a 4-speaker audio system with CD/MP3 radio with Bluetooth and USB, SD and Jack, a brake energy recovery system, Eco mode and 15-inch alloy wheels.

Priced from PLN 122,000.

Nissan Leaf

The Nissan Leaf is a 5-door compact class (C) hatchback and the European market leader in electric cars. It debuted in 2010, and the second generation of this model has been offered since 2017. The car is 4.49 m long and has a 2.7 m wheelbase. The trunk has a capacity of 370 l. In the e+ version the battery has a capacity of 62 kWh. The 217 hp electric motor allows the car to accelerate to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds and drive at a maximum speed of 157 km/h.

The maximum range is 395 km. The e+ version comes at a price of about PLN 200,000. The basic version of the Leaf, the Acenta, with a 40 kWh battery and 150 hp engine, accelerates to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds and travels at a maximum speed of 144 km/h. This model will travel 270 km on one charge. The Nissan Leaf offers a wide range of equipment (Acenta, N-Connect, Tekna versions) and accessories (e.g. a two-color body). The new models have lower energy consumption, more efficient regenerative brakes, additional features such as Hill Start Assist, Bose’s new energy-saving audio system, an improved interior finish and new body colors: Metal Dark Gray and Brilliant White Pearl as well as new aluminum wheel designs.

Priced from PLN 118,000.

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Mercedes EQC The Mercedes EQC is a mid-class SUV (D). The model debuted on the market in 2019. The electric Mercedes built on the basis of the reconstructed GLC model is 4.76 m long with a wheelbase of 2.87 m and trunk capacity of about 500 l. The lithium-ion battery pack has a capacity of 80 kWh. The EQC model offers all-wheel drive. Two engines located at both axles (front and rear) with a total power of 408 hp allow the car to accelerate to 100 km/h in 5.1 seconds (!) and drive at a maximum speed Autumn 2020

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of 180 km/h. The maximum range is 450 km. Despite its visual similarity to the “combustion” GLC model, the electric EQC makes a remarkable impression at first glance, thanks to, among other things, fiber-optic stripes that shine above the grille along the hood and on the tailgate. The equipment is very extensive and includes virtually all the elements that affect driving comfort and safety offered by the brand, including a voice command system (Hey Mercedes) and, as in the other models of the brand, giant screens of the MBUX multimedia system (Mercedes Benz User Experience).

Priced from PLN 328,000.

Porsche Taycan

The Porsche Taycan is a 4-door high-end (F) sports sedan presented in 2019. The car is 4.93 m long and has a wheelbase of 2.9 m. The Taycan is the first electric model in the history of the brand. It is offered in three different versions and powers: Turbo, Turbo S and 4S. The Turbo version offers 670 hp, the 4S has 571 hp and the strongest Turbo S (with overboost) has 761 hp (!).

The strongest version has a 93.4 kWh battery and the highest charging power of 270 kW among electric cars thanks to the system voltage of 800 volts. (Today, the standard in electric cars is a maximum of 400. According to the manufacturer, it takes 22.5 minutes to charge the battery to 80 percent.) With its 761 hp power, the Taycan Turbo S reaches 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 260 km/h. The range is 412 km, according to the manufacturer. All-wheel drive is provided by two electric motors located on the front and rear axles. There is also a two-speed transmission in the powertrain - the only such example among electric cars.

Priced from PLN 454,000.

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MERCEDES INVESTMENT IN POLAND The Mercedes concern has been present in Poland for over 25 years, but today not only through dealerships. In Lower Silesia, a Mercedes-Benz engine and electric battery factory is being built.

It is the first production investment of Daimler AG in Poland.

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he Mercedes Benz Manufacturing Poland (MBMP) factory is located in the Jawor commune, about 70 km from Wrocław, in the Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone.

It is one of over 30 plants of the concern in the global network of Mercedes-Benz Cars. It produces technologically advanced conventional engines. Soon the production of electric batteries for plug-in hybrid vehicles will be launched.

Batteries from Jawor will drive Mercedes passenger hybrids according to the vision of “Ambition 2039”, which aims at a fleet of cars fully neutral in terms of CO2 emissions.

In turn, by 2022, over 50% of the cars sold will be equipped with electric power units, produced, among

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others, in the plant in Jawor.

The engine and battery factory is part of the so-called fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0.), which is based on the use of cyber-physical systems, allowing, among others, for real-time information management or digital production management.

The production process uses, among others, augmented reality (AR) or Big Data analyses, which significantly support work during production and assembly. The Mercedes plant in Jawor, apart from innovative solutions in the area of production, is also a leader in terms of ecology and low carbon dioxide emissions. All energy covering the needs of the plant comes from renewable sources: electricity from the wind power plant park in Taczalin, and thermal energy from

biomass (wood chips from an energy willow plantation).

Jawor factory is a good “citizen” of the region. It supports socio-economic development by investing in modern technologies and creating highly specialised jobs.

It undertakes activities in the cultural, social and educational sphere.

As part of the active shaping of the labor market, the company has focused on activating women’s potential in the region, offering young women educational programmes on new technologies (“Girls Go Technology, or girls tame technology”, job fairs for women, etc.). The company supports orphanages in Jawor, care facilities for seniors and is also involved in important events in the region.

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IN BRIEF

PROLOGIS IN POLAND AND CENTRAL EUROPE IN 2019 AND Q1 2020 THE TOTAL SIZE OF PROLOGIS’ portfolio in the region (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) is 4.2 million square meters, including 1.8 million sq. m in Poland.

The company offers 1.25 million sq. m, of which 57 percent is accounted for by contracts concluded in the Polish market (708,000 sq. m). The warehouse occupancy rate in Poland is very high at 94 percent.

Key contracts in Poland include 160,000 sq. m for EURO-net at Prologis Park Janki, 50,000 sq. m of tailor-made warehouse at Prologis Park Ruda Śląska, 40,000 sq. m at Prologis Park Wrocław IV - BTSs for Jøtul AS and Yusen Logistics, two BTSs under one roof at Prologis Park Wrocław V.

“For Prologis in Central Europe, 2019 was a year of customer focus.

Using the potential of a global scale, we worked on solutions to support our customers’ growth, especially in terms of sustainability, wellbeing and operational excellence of the business,” Paweł Sapek, senior vice president and regional head for Central Europe, summarized last year’s results of Prologis. “Entering the COVID-19 period, the company had a strong position, good liquidity and creditworthiness.

The high quality of Prologis’ portfolio, the company’s broad customer base and strong balance sheet are expected to enable the company to cope with the turmoil of COVID-19 also in the next months of 2020,” Sapek added.

SECURE LOTOS STATIONS THE LOTOS FILLING STATION network has 505 facilities in Poland.

Immediately after the announcement of an epidemic emergency, LOTOS Paliwa took steps to ensure continuity of operation of all these stations.

Special safety measures were also introduced in the catering segment.

Employees hand over products by

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placing them on a dispensing counter to avoid contact. All surfaces such as door handles, credit card readers, counters, beverage dispensers, ice machines, waste bins and work tables are disinfected hourly. The entire coffee corner including the coffee machine is also disinfected regularly. At night, however, the entire catering area is disinfected (additional plexiglass dividers are also installed).

“Filling stations are an important element in the country’s functioning, so we are gradually changing the system of their operation with all due care. Our decisions are part of the second stage of consistent opening up of the economy by the Polish authorities. From the very beginning, safety at fuel stations was one of our priorities.

This would not have been possible without our employees. I thank them for their commitment,” says Paweł Jan Majewski, president of the management board of LOTOS Group.

NTT SYSTEM DOUBLES NET PROFIT AND INCREASES REVENUES BY A QUARTER NTT SYSTEM, ONE OF POLAND’S largest hardware manufacturers and IT distributors, started the year with growth. What’s more, despite the unfavorable trends in the economy, these increases were really big. In the first quarter, the company generated a net profit of PLN 1.84 million, almost twice as much as the year before. This is the second year in a row of very good results of the company: In the first quarter of 2018 net profit amounted to PLN 617,000. Profit before tax increased even more – PLN 2,346,000 vs. PLN 1.07 million obtained from January to the end of March 2019.

Such a large increase was achieved with revenues of PLN 122 million (up by 26%).

“The first quarter of 2020 will certainly go down in history as one of the most difficult for the economy,” says Tadeusz Kurek, NTT System’s president of the board. “Due to the developing pandemic, we had to deal with long delays in the delivery of goods from Asia. Later, shopping malls and large-format stores, which are a significant recipient of goods from NTT System, were closed in Poland. This makes us all the more proud of the excellent results achieved and we look to the future with optimism,” Kurek adds.

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IN THE ELECTRIC CAR SALES ranking list for the period between January and May 2020, Nissan is the undisputed leader in the industry, despite a growing number of competitors.

During this time alone, the brand sold 181 emission-free vehicles, including 163 Leaf cars. This represents a 99-percent increase in sales compared to the same

period in 2019. Nissan has outdistanced its competitors and is number one in the electric vehicle market in Poland.

“We are proud to be the market leader. The growing interest of buyers, despite the slowdown caused by the virus, is a huge distinction for us and shows confidence in the brand, but also customers’ growing confidence

IN BRIEF

NISSAN: LEADER OF ELECTRIC CAR SALES IN POLAND in electric cars. Such a significant increase in sales and the market leader’s position is all the more satisfying because we have achieved it despite the lack of previously announced subsidies for the purchase of electric cars,” says Tomasz Latała-Golisz, managing director of Nissan Sales Central & Eastern Europe.

ALSTOM POLAND REDUCES ITS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT BY 2025, ALSTOM INTENDS TO ACHIEVE THE GOAL of obtaining one hundred percent of the energy used in its plants from renewable sources (RES). Against this background, Alstom Polska stands out, as it already obtains 100% of the energy consumed by the Chorzów plant from renewable sources.

“With the coming of 2020 we have contracted 12 000 MWh of certified energy, which corresponds to 100% of the estimated annual consumption of our plant in Chorzów.

This is a huge amount of environmentally friendly energy.

For comparison - it would be enough to light and power all electrical equipment throughout the year in more than three

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thousand houses”, says Paweł Siwek, Managing Director of Alstom Konstal S.A. Certified green energy comes directly from water and wind RES installations owned by Tauron Ekoenergia.

“Changing the source of the acquired energy is another important step in Alstom’s sustainable development strategy, but also our local success”. - adds Artur Fryczkowski, Managing Director of Alstom in Poland. Sustainable and intelligent mobility are the pillars of Alstom’s innovation strategy, which provides a solid foundation for the transport of the future. Alstom intends to continue investing in Chorzów and Warsaw in the next two years, including the launch of modern production lines.

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IN BRIEF

WARSAW IS RETURNING TO THE EMIRATES NETWORK FROM SEPTEMBER 4, EMIRATES airline resumes passenger flights to Warsaw, starting from twice a week, and from October 7 to three during the week. The resumption of passenger flights to Warsaw will extend the Emirates network to 75 cities in September - the airline offers travelers in Poland easy access to Dubai and 28 cities in the Asia-Pacific region and 13 in the Middle East and Africa.

The airline is gradually restoring its network, working closely with

international and local authorities to responsibly resume passenger operations and meet demand for travel while putting the health and safety of its customers, crew and communities first. PCR tests on Covid-19 are mandatory for all passengers arriv-

ing in Dubai and the UAE, including transit travellers, UAE citizens, residents and tourists, regardless of the country they come from. On the Dubai-Warsaw route Emirates airlines will provide wide-body Boeing 777-300ER planes.

ECO-FRIENDLY CONFERENCES IN FASHION THE TREND OF ECOLOGY HAS ALSO ENTERED THE event world. Companies more and more often pay attention to the carbon footprint of organized events and choose offers that allow to promote ecological behavior and sustainable development.

“For some time now, we have been observing that our corporate clients are asking more and more often about the ecological side of event organization. And despite the epidemiological situation and traffic restrictions in the event industry, this trend continues”, says Tomasz Piórkowski, Regional

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Director of Vienna House. “For this reason we decided to prepare an eco-conference offer in our hotels Vienna House Easy Cracow and Vienna House Andel’s Cracow. These activities are 100% consistent with the network policy of sustainable development”, he adds. Reducing the carbon footprint of events also means giving guests the opportunity to recharge their electric car in the hotel parking lot, switching to 100% green energy, giving up plastic packaging or caged eggs. Vienna House systematically implements pro-ecological solutions and is committed to the environment.

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