Standridge Color Corp. didn’t set out to invest in the Czech Republic, but once it was pulled there by a client, executives realized that the small country had a lot to offer.
Based in Social Circle, Ga., 45 miles east of Atlanta, the family-owned plastic pigmentation company has six facilities across the U.S. and a plant in a plant in Suzhou, China. Entering the Czech Republic was much easier than its other international foray.
“When we went to China we kind of did an ‘off-the-hip’ venture,” Blane Allen, chief executive, said at a World Trade Center Atlanta seminar on doing business in the Czech Republic and Poland.
The company avoided that “rough road” in Central Europe by partnering with CzechInvest, the government’s business recruitment agency, which offers investors free assistance on everything from site selection, appointments, access to EU incentives and even transportation, which was crucial to Mr. Allen’s search for a building suitable for a heavy manufacturer.
“We had them pick us up and drive us around from town to town,” he told a breakfast audience of businesspeople Aug. 13. “If you don’t hear anything else and you’re planning on going there, please use (CzechInvest).”
His testimony gave credence to an earlier presentation by Jan Fried of CzechInvest’s New York office, who touted strong tradition of technical knowledge, geographic position in Europe and skilled labor force with the language skills to bridge Eastern and Western Europe.
Those are attributes Polish embassy officials also honed in on as they sought to prepare participants in a planned Georgia trade mission to both countries in October. Many of their strategic industries, including energy, aerospace, biotechnology and clean tech, are focus areas of the state as well. Learn more about the mission
Compared to other emerging markets, Czech labor might be a bit more expensive, but it makes up for that in productivity, especially in the manufacturing and R&D segments, Mr. Fried said.
“Czech Republic is not a low-cost, cheap-labor country. What we are delivering is quality. What we are delivering is what you are looking for,” he said, adding that average wages in the country of 10 million people are $15,000 per year and the corporate tax rate is 19 percent. Foreign investors are myriad, but a few big names include Hyundai, GE Aviation, Volkswagen and Siemens.
Poland also has vast experience in manufacturing all kinds of goods across 14 special economic zones including Aviation Valley, a cluster of 100-plus aerospace firms where Atlanta officials have been building ties. In the cities, Poland has a young, tech-savvy population that has drawn a lot of regional back-office operations for high-tech firms and service providers.
EY was attracted there when looking to expand its tech support for internal functions like job postings and employee onboarding in 2011.
The team had heard of Poland’s stability and appeal, and it all came true” when the company landed in Wroclaw, a college town where university students make up a quarter of the population, said Bob Trotter, director of global shared IT services for the accounting and consulting giant. EY has been there since 2011 and plans to boost its 270 workers to 500 by the end of the year.
Poland is also a top-10 EU consumer market in its own right, as Buford, Ga.-based oka-B has found.
Oka-B’s plastic shoes are found in 16 boutiques in Poland, where a local distributor has helped the company build out a robust Polish-language social media presence that has become central to marketing efforts there, said Jackie Barnett, director of international sales.
Poland’s value-added tax drives prices higher than in the U.S., but the cachet of being made in America helps oka-B’s retail partners find buyers anyway. Oka-B is looking to break into the resort segment this year. Eventually sales in Poland could climb to 10,000-20,000 pairs annually, putting it on par with South Korea or Japan, Ms. Barnett said.
The Georgia-based honorary consuls for the Czech Republic and Poland – George Novak and Lawrence Ashe, respectively – both attended the event at the City Club of Buckhead, which is home to the World Trade Center Atlanta.
For more information, visit www.wtcatlanta.org.
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