"Polish clients want to be served in an advanced, flexible and digital way"

With 38 million inhabitants and an economy that has been thriving for years, Poland ranks among the top six countries in the EU. For Apleona, as a service provider with a Europe-wide presence, Poland is therefore an important target market. Reason enough to interview Lech Wodecki, CEO of Apleona Poland. The 38-year-old native Pole, who grew up partly in Germany, studied in the USA and has already worked in Germany, Austria and Poland, has been with Apleona for five years. The father of two particularly appreciates working in an international environment and enjoys working with international colleagues on Apleona's success and further growth.

What does a successful FM company need to offer its customers in the Polish market?

First and foremost, customers expect quality and expertise, often including industry knowledge, just as in other countries. In addition, we serve many international customers who expect to receive the same standard of service everywhere in the world. This includes our ICC customers, but not only them. Here in Poland, for example, we also serve internationally active real estate asset managers who attach great importance to a very high quality of execution for their properties and their users. Many industrial companies, e.g. in the automotive sector, also demand a high degree of flexibility in service provision, but at the same time want to be guaranteed a high level of security for production processes, personnel and property. We are very proud that Apleona is now one of the service partners of choice for such customers in Poland.

How do you assess market growth for Poland in the coming years?

In the commercial real estate sector, we have been able to rely on excellent growth rates in recent years, not least because the Polish economy as a whole has grown strongly and continues to grow. Poland's cities also offer many incentives and opportunities for professional, often international, investors to settle there. Warsaw is still experiencing a construction boom. However, the question now is how the markets will develop after the coronavirus pandemic and now, during the energy crisis and with the war in Ukraine looming. There are actually a few positive signs: demand for office space in Warsaw is rising again for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, 270,000 m2 of space was newly let. The number and volume of transactions are also on the rise again. This also applies to the logistics real estate asset class – a sector in which we at Apleona want to develop further, similar to our German colleagues who recently won contracts there.
Our industrial customers remain a strong pillar of our business, particularly in the automotive sector. Among other things, we provide integrated FM services for a MAN truck plant near Krakow and technical FM services for a Mercedes-Benz engine factory near Wroclaw. We want to continue growing in this sector with both existing and new customers.

In your opinion, which trades are the key to success in the Polish market?

Our recipe for success, especially with industrial customers, is integrated FM, i.e. offering all FM services from a single source, combined with our technical expertise and high in-house service ratio. That is why we are investing and strengthening our position in refrigeration technology and fire protection in a targeted manner, but of course the acquisition of FM Solutions is also paying off in this already successful business model.

What are currently the biggest challenges in the Polish FM market?

Inflation is an issue everywhere. And inflation combined with price competition and a shortage of skilled workers can be a real headache, because we cannot simply pass on the significantly higher costs to our customers. We are in talks with all our customers about this. It is not easy, but at least we are meeting with understanding and seeing some success in the discussions. The topic of digitalisation is more fun. Polish customers are modern customers. They want everything to be digital, fast, intuitive, preferably on an iPad or iPhone. We are now well prepared for such requests and wishes, e.g. through CAFM systems supported by NFC tags, so that our customers have real-time access to the information that is important to them and we can guarantee the transparency of our services.