Arms group PGZ looks to expand abroad

State-owned PGZ began functioning last year as an attempt to concentrate the Polish defence industry, bringing together 60 key Polish companies with a total workforce of 17,600 employees.

The group’s companies had total revenues of PLN 5 billion (EUR 1.2 billion) last year, though the official financial statement for PGZ will report revenue of just PLN 1.9 billion (EUR 0.5 billion) as many companies only joined it in the third and fourth quarters of the year.

“We have officially finished the process of consolidating PGZ. This process was already being proposed 20 years ago, but it always failed to go further. Now the process of actually integrating the individual companies in terms of production, research, development, trade and marketing is next,” PGZ CEO Wojciech Dąbrowski said.

Dąbrowski claimed that so far there has only been limited cooperation between the various companies. He pointed to a planned contract to sell 30 Rosomak vehicles to Slovakia, which involves three firms belonging to PGZ, as an example of what cooperation could achieve.

“We are preparing the group to realise key projects for the Polish Army’s modernisation programme, including the medium distance air defence programme Vistula, the drone programme and the coastal defence programme,” the CEO added.

According to Dąbrowski, PGZ’s involvement in the modernisation programme will help its companies create over a hundred modern products with potential for export.

The group cooperates with research institutions such as the Military University of Technology, which is working on graphene technology, and the National Defence University.

“From the very creation of the group we have always known that close cooperation between the military, science and industry is the future,” Dąbrowski added. (sl/jh)

Source: PAP