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Ewa Łapińska: Mars invests heavily in Poland

We have invested over USD 1 billion in Poland to date. We have five factories and two shared service centres, which we continue to expand and upgrade', says Ewa Łapińska, general manager Poland & Baltics Mars Wrigley Polska.

Publikacja: 06.09.2024 04:28

Ewa Łapińska: Mars invests heavily in Poland

Foto: Paweł Woźniak

What does the ‘greening’ of business at Mars look like today?

This is a very important issue for Mars both globally and locally. Globally, we have a clear roadmap for achieving carbon neutrality. It was announced last year. We want to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We have already achieved success in this area. We have reduced our carbon footprint by 16 per cent since 2015, and at the same time increased turnover by 60 per cent. Mars takes this issue very seriously. A significant percentage of managers' bonuses depends on achieving sustainability goals.

We have great success in this area in Poland as well. Our five factories making sweets, snacks and chewing gum, as well as pet food, supply almost 80 markets. We have office employees and two shared service centres. All our factories operate entirely on renewable energy.

Do customers in Poland pay attention to environmental issues in the production of goods?

Our ‘customers’ are retail chains. Large retail chains are often large companies that also have sustainability goals. We offer specific partnerships to parties that are open to it. We carry out joint projects to save cardboard and recycle packaging. We have put 100 per cent recycled frames and racks in the checkout area in one of our customers' shops.

Consumers also pay attention to this – they want sustainably made products. They want companies to support sustainability, but they also want to buy products at a fair price. They see it as something we should provide to the planet, to children and to our communities. And that's a task we share with all market participants.

What are your investment plans for the coming quarters?

I cannot talk about the details yet, but our history shows that Mars has been investing heavily in Poland. We are one of the top five markets in Europe in terms of production and number of associates. We have invested over USD 1 billion in Poland to date. We have the five factories I have mentioned, which we continue to expand and upgrade. We have specific plans for the next two years – we want to launch new production lines.

You operate in the pet food sector. You can see the dynamic growth of this market in Poland. Do you want to develop even more strongly on this market?

Yes. Mars operates in two areas, one is snacks – chocolate bars and chewing gum. The second area is pet food, in which we are also growing rapidly, in response to market needs. The number of households with pets has increased several times in the last couple of decades. We now treat pets as part of the family. We link our business strategy to this cultural change. Apart from the production of pet food, we have been developing a segment of services dedicated to pets. This includes the creation of a chain of veterinary clinics in Poland under the AniCura brand. We are vigorously developing the animal health diagnostics sector in the United States. This is a strategically important area for Mars.

Digitalisation also seems to be important. What does this look like from the point of view of a global company operating in Poland?

We focus a lot on the digitalisation of all aspects of our business. The obvious area is manufacturing – our Polish factories are among the most modern factories not only in Europe but in the world. They are highly automated and use elements of artificial intelligence to forecast demand or optimise raw material consumption. We also have solutions that eliminate the use of forklifts in the factory. Instead, we have special platforms that move pallets from place to place, making it look like the set of a science fiction movie.

We also seek ways to digitise the commercial area. We already measure the fulfilment of our standards at our retail outlets in a very modern way using image recognition technology. Sales representatives no longer have to fill in any questionnaire. All they need to do is take a picture, that is reported in a modern way. Soon technology will make it possible to manage a shop's display based on a video. There are similar developments in numerous other areas in which we search for digitalisation opportunities.

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What does the ‘greening’ of business at Mars look like today?

This is a very important issue for Mars both globally and locally. Globally, we have a clear roadmap for achieving carbon neutrality. It was announced last year. We want to reduce emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. We have already achieved success in this area. We have reduced our carbon footprint by 16 per cent since 2015, and at the same time increased turnover by 60 per cent. Mars takes this issue very seriously. A significant percentage of managers' bonuses depends on achieving sustainability goals.

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