Clas Ohlson has just opened a purchasing office in Warsaw, Poland. With this, we are creating a purchasing hub for Central Eastern Europe that allows more direct purchasing with less need for agents, and it will also reduce lead times compared to buying from Asia.

Bartosz Koldej has been recruited as Sourcing Manager. He is currently running a one-man show on site in Warsaw, but as our business develops there, plans are to grow both our competence and our office in Poland.

“I’m so excited to be part of the Clas Ohlson family, and I see great possibilities for the company with this new establishment. My background within Ikea includes responsibility for finding new suppliers on the central European market, and setting up business fundamentals for non-existing categories. I’m looking forward to using that experience to build up production capabilities in central Europe for Clas Ohlson,” Bartosz explains.

Why did we choose Warsaw as the location for our new office?

“Warsaw can be seen as the “capital” of central Europe when it comes to manufacturing capabilities. The Central Europe area is at the front end in innovation and automation and they offer great product quality. This is also an interesting step for Clas Ohlson as we are bringing business closer to DC and our customers,” says Bartosz. “The establishment of this office does not mean that we are decreasing our purchasing volumes at our purchasing office in China, instead it means that we can challenge the products we buy in China and thus be able to choose even better alternatives by growing our purchase value in both. Having purchasing offices in diverse locations is also a way to spread out potential risks a little,” Bartosz continues.

What does a purchasing office really do?

“We collaborate closely with our product managers in Insjön. The process is basically that they contact us with a mission to find a certain product, and then it is our job to go to our suppliers and find the best possible product according to certain specifications such as function, price, quality and so on. But it can also be the other way around, so that we suggest certain products that we see great potential in for the products managers. So initiatives come both ways,” Bartosz explains. “Wood and wooden based products is a strong product area in Poland where there is some low-hanging fruit to pick, so right now we are working with for example wooden hangers and picture frames. Plastic products is another area with strong potential, that has been recently negatively affected by raw material prices,” says Bartosz.

What can we say regarding sustainability and our office in Warsaw?

“One obvious advantage is of course that we bring production closer to our final customers, which reduces transports and in turn CO2 emissions. With regards to product quality, they will of course have to comply with our high Clas Ohlson standards, and we make sure they have all the required certificates for function and material,” Bartosz explains. “There are also strict regulations and processes in Poland for maintaining good work conditions. There has been a change of mentality, and factories now invest a lot of effort in having happy, long-term co-workers. That fact also ensures a higher quality. For now, external partners perform audits at the factories, but the plan is to have our own auditors in the future,” Bartosz ends.