Bielsko-Biała has the second-highest number of registered companies per 1,000 inhabitants in Silesia, reveals Investment Attractiveness of Bielsko-Biała, a report prepared by Cushman & Wakefield in conjunction with the Cavatina Group. The city’s pro-investment policy and prime location are the key drivers in this, say report authors.
The city has been a strong social and economic centre combining administrative, educational, business and cultural functions for years. The entire Bielsko-Biała Conurbation has a population of approximately 350,000, while the Bielsko-Biała Metropolitan Area is inhabited by around 880,000 people. The city boasts more than 26,600 companies of various size, 23 percent of which are either wholesalers or retailers, 12 percent focus on professional, scientific and technical activities, while 11 percent operate in the construction industry.
“Bielsko-Biała is an attractive location for businesses delivering R&D, IT, financial and accounting services, and for the automotive industry. Its investment attractiveness is determined by such factors as its location, a range of infrastructure projects and a pool of top-class professionals. In response to the growing market demand, we have developed a mixed-use project Cavatina Hall, the first class A office building in Bielsko-Biała. The strong interest coming during the project development from many local entities and companies which are considering opening another office in Poland is confirmation that looking ahead, Bielsko-Biała will certainly continue to strengthen its position on the map of locations for the business services sector,” says Rafał Malarz, Vice President of the Management Board, Cavatina.
Bielsko-Biała offers an attractive business environment as confirmed by the presence of a number of multinationals including FCA, Nemak, Eaton Automotive Systems, Cooper–Standard, GE Power Controls, Avio Aero (GE Aviation), Hutchinson, Signify, ZF Steering Systems, ABB Industrial Solutions, Ellie Mae, Pitney Bowes, Precisely, ADP and Bluecrest.
Investment-friendly city
The presence of many leading companies from the automotive, electrical engineering, logistics or BSS sectors attracts a growing number of firms to locate in Bielsko-Biała. Another strength of the city is the municipality’s pro-investment policy which translates into a range of incentives and solutions that drive business growth in Bielsko-Biała.
“Bielsko-Biała, alongside Łódź, had been a textile manufacturing hotspot for many years, and in the 1970s it also became a major automotive manufacturing city after the automotive factory FSM (FabrykaSamochodówMałolitrażowych) was built. Today, most companies that once made the local industry strong no longer exist. They have been replaced by new manufacturing plants built by the world’s largest companies, which is evidence that Bielsko-Biała is an attractive investment location. We are, however, most pleased with the fact that after Poland’s political transformation, city residents took business into their own hands and it is their companies that the Bielsko-Biała market is based on. The local Bielsko-Biała government also contributed to making the capital of the Podbeskidzie region an attractive location for potential investors. First of all, we invested in the city infrastructure – we pride ourselves not only on a very modern transport system but also on a strong network of cultural and educational institutions, modern sports facilities and hospitals of the 21stcentury,” says Jarosław Klimaszewski, Mayor of Bielsko-Biała.
In recent years, companies present in Bielsko-Biała have benefitted from both the city’s programmes and EU subsidies. Between 2007-2013, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises based in Bielsko-Biała carried out 264 projects subsidized with a total of PLN 85,122,908 from the EU funds for the Silesian Province, the second-highest result of the enterprise sector in the Silesian Province. Supported by the EU funds of the Innovative Economy Operational Programme for the years 2007-2013, Bielsko-Biała-based companies carried out 146 projects subsidized with a total of PLN 315,492,230, the third-highest result in the Silesian Province.
According to experts, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BSS companies are likely to shift their interest to smaller regional cities for satellite offices.
“The rapid growth of regional city office markets in the last decade has been driven, among other things, by the expansion of the business services sector, which is favouring Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland. However, as the largest cities became increasingly saturated with BSS companies, the sector progressed towards decentralisation, which has become a notable trend. Large corporations and BSS centres are increasingly opening satellite centres in smaller cities such as Bydgoszcz, Bielsko-Biała, Częstochowa, Gliwice, Opole, and Rzeszów. Each city has its own specific features and this diversity is critical to the growth of the BSS in Poland. In Bielsko-Biała, where we have been active for some time, we have seen growth in ITO and R&D as the city is a major manufacturing and research location. The coronavirus pandemic will, in a sense, encourage large organisations to open satellite offices in small and medium-sized towns, especially as teams working online do not have to travel too often. The CEE region has also demonstrated that it is a safe haven that helps ensure business continuity and make safe long-term business plans,” says Krzysztof Misiak, Head of Cushman & Wakefield Poland.
