Entering Wrigley's orbit
working relations
Working in tandem with Wrigley Poland, Rabo BRP has come up with one of
those rare ideas - a solution that represents a win-win situation for both
Wrigley and its dients. Wrigley Poland's
talks us through the concept.
Sharing knowledge
finance manager Krzysztof Olejniczak
Customer support
No-go
Tough criteria
Win-win
What'sNewS Issue8-August 1998 3
he explains. 'Our parent's view was that
however sensitive the factoring agency, it
still means there is a third party between
Wrigley and the customer. That was a no-
go for us.'
Customer focus and partnership have
always been core elements in the
development and growth of Wrigley, one
of the most venerable and reputable F&A
corporates in the world. Since its
foundation in 1891, the Chicago-based
amily firm with global operations has
tuck to its philosophy of self-finance. It
is a philosophy that has worked, minting
the company pre-tax 1997 earnings of
close to IJSD 400 million. When Wrigley
first set up activities in Poland back in
1991, the initial aint was to build volume
on the domestic market. Within two
years, that volume had increased so
substantially that the top chewing gum
maker began considering the feasibility of
manu-facturing for this growing market.
'The decision to start production here
was taken in 1994,' says Olejniczak.
'The ground-breaking was done in ntid-
1994; production started on 1 January
1996. Just to give you an idea of growth
over the past years, from a trade
perspective in 1997 volume had increased
17-fold since 1991This kind of growth
»as given Wrigley no less than 90% of the
olish market for adult products and
between 50 and 60% of children's gum
sales I 998 figures). This impressive
performance is now being repeated in
Poland's neighbouring countries.
Wrigley Poland now produces over half
of its capacity for export to other Central
and Eastern European countries,
including the Czech Republic, Bulgaria,
Hungary, Ukraine and many others.
Olejniczak is clearly very happy with this
ongoing development in both production
and export sales and explains a new
Wrigley plant will be opening in the near
future in St Petersburg to better serve the
growing Russian market. The Polish
:am, which consists exclusively of local
hires, is also very happy to be able to pass
on the training they received at Wrigley
plants in the UK, France and Austria.
'That is also part of the corporate
philosophy,' he says, 'sharing existing
knowledge and expertise.'
The similarities between Wrigley and
Rabobank are almost proverbial. Both
strive for customer focus and partnership
rather than pure profit. So much so in
Wrigley's case that those customers who
suffered loss or
damage during
the disastrous
flooding in
Poland last year
were resupplied
at no charge.
'Certainly,'
confirms
Olejniczak, 'one
of our primary
aims is to
support our
customers in
growing their
business.'
Another of
Wrigley Poland's
goals is to grow its own business by no
less than 50% within five years. 'It's what
we call our 2000 program,' he grins. 'To
do that, we will have to increase our sales
The problem with that is not a lack of
interest on the part of our customers, but
rather credit limits available to them.'
When Olejniczak joined the company
back in September 1996, he was
inundated with banks offering their
services. 'But no one was addressing any
of our specific needs. This is where
Rabobank came in. Working through
your rep in Poznan, Krzysztof Michalak,
we initially began putting together a
factoring type structure.' Although all
parties in Poland considered the factoring
offering sensitive to customer needs,
Chicago came back with a negative.
'We are a very conservative company,'
'We were very disappointed,' admits RFs
Michalak. 'But we also understood the
company's reservations. The negative
only meant we had to come up with
something better.' That is exactly what
they did. Working closely with the
company, Michalak and Piotr Czarnecki's
corporate banking team in Warsaw
developed a customer guarantee system
which does not interfere with relations
between Wrigley and its clients. 'This
proposal was accepted,' says Czarnecki,
obviously thrilled at creating a solution
Spearheading solutions - Wrigley's Krzysztof Olejniczak, our Piotr Czarnecki,
Dariusz Kucz of Wrigley's and Krzysztof Michalak, our Poznan rep.
that meets the tough criteria of a
corporate like Wrigley. 'It shows what
you can do when given the chance to get
to know a cliënt and build your offerings
around that knowledge.'
For Wrigley Poland, the structure means a
win-win situation. Comments Olejniczak:
'It allows us to support customer
development while giving our fullest
possible attention to protecting our assets.
From my perspective, our receivables are
now covered fully. That means we've
brought together two vital factors -
security and an opportunity to increase
sales. Basically, it's this type of offering
that defines what we are looking for in a
banking relationship - a bank with the
ability to look at our needs, at our
customers' needs and then come up with
a solution that makes everyone a winner.'
