Promotion program

Our brand at the end of the world

A massive program to promote Polish mining machinery on global markets.

Leading Polish exporters of mining machinery and equipment traveled 150,000 kilometers over three years, visiting dozens of trade fairs and trade missions in seven countries worldwide, and a staggering PLN 13 million was allocated to promoting our mining equipment.

Our brand at the end of the world

This is the largest promotional program in the sector’s history. Never before has the mining-related industry managed to obtain such funding from the European Union on such a large scale,” says Janusz Olszowski, head of the Mining and Mining Industry Association (GIPH). In the spring of 2012, as part of a consortium, the Association won the Ministry of Economy’s tender to manage the project under the “Promotion of the Polish Economy on International Markets” project (in the EU’s Innovative Economy Operational Programme).

The Mining Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s partners in the winning consortium were the Polish Chamber of Commerce and the Silesian company Polska Technika Górnicza S.A., which specializes in organizing prestigious international mining fairs.

By registering, companies could recover up to 75% of the costs incurred in participating in domestic and international trade fairs and trade missions.

Support for producers in crisis

For a sector experiencing the current crisis, which is scrambling for every penny and seeking opportunities to expand into export markets, such support was valuable. Only the industry’s largest producers can currently afford to expand advertising on other continents, expensive travel, flights, and business meetings on the other side of the world, yet even then, money for brand building is spent with a heavy heart when austerity measures are painful at home and force, for example, staff reductions, said Silesian mining machinery manufacturers during a GIPH meeting devoted to the industry’s financial difficulties in February 2015 in Katowice.

Program coverage and event calendar

The idea of supporting producers in promotion and export originated with the Ministry of Economy, which divided its program into two main blocks to ensure maximum coherence of assistance.

Seven countries were selected from global foreign markets (India, Vietnam, Argentina, Russia, China, Chile, and Kazakhstan). A calendar of more than a dozen important international trade events was created in Mumbai, Hanoi, Novokuznetsk, Beijing, Kolkata, Santiago de Chile, Karaganda, and Katowice (including the International Mining, Energy and Metallurgy Industry Fair in September 2013), as well as five additional trade missions to China, India, Russia, Chile, and Vietnam.

Polish entrepreneurs had to commit to active participation in at least half of the offered events and confirm their participation in order to be eligible for reimbursement (no more than €200,000 over the three years of the program).

Eligible costs and image promotion

Participants could count on reimbursement of eligible costs, such as exhibition space rental, stand construction, transportation and shipping of exhibits, fees related to listing in the trade fair catalog, registration and advertising in foreign publications, preparation or purchase of brochures and promotional items, as well as travel and accommodation for the entrepreneur or up to two designated employees. EU funding was used to produce attractive advertisements for Polish manufacturers in foreign languages. Modern leaflets and advertising spots were created, expertly translated into foreign languages, and displayed on large screens and monitors at the fair. Logos of Polish mining machinery and equipment manufacturers appeared on T-shirts, mugs, pens, pocket knives, and flash drives (coordinators meticulously checked to ensure they were allocated appropriately and, for example, that the advertisements were broadcast at the appropriate frequency).

Effects of the program

Thanks to this part of the program, the entrepreneurs traveled 150,000 km, visiting seven countries on two continents, participated in ten trade fairs, conducted business talks, and met with government representatives, whom they sought to promote economic cooperation with Poland.

As is typical with such business initiatives, the expected results are not immediately apparent, but it is already clear that the years of the promotional program saw a significant increase in export activity for the largest Silesian manufacturers, such as Kopex and Famur. Contracts for the supply of equipment, longwall and transport systems, and specialized services (such as the construction of conveyor belt systems in exotic corners of the globe, where mining is currently booming) benefit both machinery factories and subcontractors of manufacturing groups.

Training, conferences and market analysis

In the second block of the program, the Ministry of Economy played a key role (funding all work in this section, and the results were completely free for entrepreneurs), as did the Mining Chamber of Commerce and Industry itself, which conducted three major training sessions and conferences, published a guide on the Polish mining machinery and equipment industry, and prepared an analysis of the domestic market and export potential.

In June 2013, our businesspeople were trained on how to effectively bid for contracts in the mining industry, and in September 2014, the effects of implementing the new Geological and Mining Law were discussed. The joint promotion of mining brands was visually evident at the 2013 international trade fair in Katowice, and one of the most important accompanying conferences addressed the challenges faced by mining machinery and equipment manufacturers.