Zakłady Chemiczne Police would be standing on solid ground were it not for Polimery Police, the aborted venture that keeps pulling the company — and the whole of Grupa Azoty — down. The plant’s management sees one way out: a takeover of the polymers business by Orlen.
Police, listed for two decades and part of Grupa Azoty for more than ten years, is wrestling with heavy debt, an ageing machinery park, squeezed investment spending and mounting unease among its crew. The town lives off the works, launched in the mid-1960s as the country’s intended main producer of multi-component fertilisers and several other key compounds.
– If it were not for Polimery Police, the company would be in quite a good financial position. Unfortunately, the burden of this investment hits every company in Grupa Azoty, and it hits us hardest – said Małgorzata Królak, CEO of the Police works and a vice-president of Grupa Azoty.
The first-half figures make the case. Revenue edged up year on year to 1.361 bn zł, the operating loss shrank sevenfold to 7.758 m zł, and the net loss was cut more than fourfold, to 37 m zł. Positive cash flows have reappeared. Police holds 34.4 percent of Polimery Police, while Grupa Azoty owns 30.5 percent.
Savings have been found wherever possible, sponsorship included: Chemik Police, one of Poland’s most decorated women’s volleyball clubs, lost its funding. The traditional Chemist’s Day festivities, which in the past cost around 100,000 zł, are off.
– But now we prefer to put every złoty into renovating installations and into pay – Królak said.
From a modest unit to an 8 bn zł hole
The project was conceived at the tail end of Civic Platform’s rule, when Ewa Kopacz was prime minister, as a relatively small installation for new chemical compounds. The management appointed under the later Law and Justice government turned it into something far bigger: an installation worth 1.7 bn zł grew into a factory priced above 4 bn zł. Costs now approach 8 bn zł and the plant is still unfinished.
Warnings came early. Specialists pointed to the company’s lack of experience in running a construction project of that magnitude, its weak financial base, its unfamiliarity with the polymers market, questions over feedstock supply and the doubtful economics of the undertaking.
The company has since filed a notification over the 2023 start-up of the GA Polyolefins plant, which it says ran without the required permits and in conditions that could have endangered the lives and health of employees and residents of nearby villages.
Pay freeze, union anger and an election
The workforce feels the consequences. Dariusz Głogowski, who heads the West Pomeranian branch of Solidarity, told Radio Szczecin that employees had given everything they had.
– In 2024, parts of the collective bargaining agreement were suspended and pay was reduced by around 30 percent over those two years – he said.
Królak understands the expectations but describes the room for manoeuvre as very limited, pointing to pay alignment for selected positions under a grid agreed with the unions.
– We understand the crew’s expectations, but in the current situation giving raises is possible only to a very limited degree – said Małgorzata Królak.
Arkadiusz Poborski, who chairs the inter-plant union of continuous shift workers in Police, does not name those he holds responsible but is convinced that ordinary employees are paying for bad management. He points to the stream of departures.
– Pay at the company is at a tragic level – he stressed.
Talks on higher wages are under way across Grupa Azoty, where the union demand of 1,500 zł is seen as unrealistic and ruinous.
– If it happened at the level the unions expect, the company could, to put it plainly, be ploughed under – said an analyst at a state-owned bank, who asked not to be named.
His recipe is further cost cutting and fresh concessions from creditors, noting that under American rules the company would have sought Chapter 11 protection three or four years ago. He expects the Orlen transaction to go through, arguing that with elections next year the government cannot afford to let an enterprise of this size collapse.
Police expects to supply steam, water and energy to the polymers installation and to handle it at the port, while its multi-component fertilisers remain in demand among farmers across Poland.
– The agreement with Orlen lifts a large part of the burden tied to Polimery off the plant’s shoulders. When the installation starts up, the works will earn from it: we will supply it with steam, water and energy, and service it in our port. Our multi-component fertilisers are valued and needed on the market. For years the money went into one giant project while the plant waited for refurbishments. Now that is reversing – said Królak.
The town’s fate has long been tied to industry: Police is the largest Polish city lying entirely on the western bank of the Odra, and the wartime Hydrierwerke Pölitz plants — one of a dozen synthetic-fuel factories in the Third Reich — were flattened by bombing, with the Red Army later carving out the so-called Police Enclave to strip what survived.
– Well, we are afraid. Such a big company, and now nobody knows what will happen to it – said Alina, leaving a Lidl on the road out of town.
– At the start people said the new plant would bring jobs, and now it turns out to be nothing but trouble. I don’t know how things stand, but without the factory the town would fall apart. Every second person here works there or has family in the works or in companies tied to it. The company has to survive – said Henryk.
Unemployment in the town and its surroundings hovers around 4 percent, below the regional average.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. Materiały prasowe / Grupa Azoty
