Joris Philipsen relates: ‘Sometimes, life seems to change direction by sheer coincidence. During a show in Munich, I visited the stand of Baltic Wood, a name which I’d heard of before. I got talking, things clicked at once, and the result was that I swapped my Chinese supplier for Baltic Wood. I’d been having doubts about my Chinese links for some time. It wasn’t just about the time limits in doing business there, but, above all, you couldn’t ignore the fact that they couldn’t go on wasting material at excessively low prices. We clearly needed a return to Europe and Baltic Wood provided a good opportunity; I still have a good working relationship with them.’

Small family businesses
What follows is a story which began with scores of trips in Poland. Joris certainly got to know the Polish market very quickly. In Poland he met a vast number of small family businesses which were very efficient, but didn’t have such a wide range of products.

‘Poland has become a sort of woodwork centre of Europe. They have well trained woodworkers, who are supplied with oak from Polish and Ukrainian forests. These are almost always small businesses, so you have to look for several suppliers, obviously depending on your needs. Let me illustrate that with an example: one of them supplies beautiful mosaic floors, another offers solid oak, and still another provides quality multilayer floors. These are in all sizes, from small to large, from 7 to 50cm wide.’

Agent for eight Polish companies
With Arbo Wood Flooring, Joris acts as agent for his eight Polish companies, which operate mainly in the Benelux and French markets. Most of the end clients are large parquet companies with projects, people who import and stock, manufacturers who buy semi-solid wood to supplement the solid wood range, and so on. What exactly is the trajectory from Polish supplier to the European client?

Joris replies: ‘I’m speaking from experience when I say that it’s best to do business in Poland through someone who knows that market. Meeting a friendly chap at a trade fair doesn’t mean that the deal is done. After that, you also have to examine the potential partner critically. Are the products good technically, what about the company’s finances, and how reliable is the supply of wood? It took some time to sort everything out and set up my network, but once I’d done my homework, things fell into place. Moreover, if you can group more and more orders from clients, the Polish supplier will give you priority and you don’t have to wait? That’s a nice bonus, isn’t it?’
‘Are there any drawbacks in trading with Poles? Perhaps I should mention the language problem, as lots of people have a somewhat doubtful level in either German or English, although things are improving with the younger generation. To avoid any misunderstandings, I put everything in writing. That’s the best way to make sure there are no mistakes.’

Wood prices and supply deadlines are stable again
We can imagine that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have also had a serious impact on trade with Poland. How have things been and what’s the situation now?
‘Covid had a serious impact. There was a moment when production in some Polish regions fell to a very low level, whilst there was a huge rise in demand. It was certainly a general European problem, which led to price rises everywhere. You have to put those prices into context if you compare Poland with the rest of Europe. My personal impression is that in Poland you still pay about 15% less than elsewhere and that makes doing business there still an attractive prospect.’

‘The war has particularly affected the supply of oak. Poland does have a lot of forests of its own, but 30 to 40% still comes from Ukraine. In the first part of last year, that resulted in some tensions, but that problem has largely been solved in the meantime. On the one hand, this is because there has been a transition to more wood cutting in their own state forests and, on the other hand, since there has been a fall in demand amongst consumers on the Polish market due to the war. This has released a lot more wood for export, so delivery terms have been back to their former levels since about the end of November. Instead of six months and even longer, you can now reckon on four to five weeks. Moreover, prices have also stabilised, with even a step towards a drop in price since early 2023.’