Will Panattoni change the face of the logistics market?
Panattoni, the warehouse giant from across ‘the Pond’, is poised to enter Poland. The invasion will be led by Robert Dobrzycki, who has accepted the company’s tempting offer to take on Poland’s largest developers.
Robert Dobrzycki, head of Panattoni’s Polish operations, uses only a few pithy words to describe his new employer: “We are presently building 225 warehouses in the USA, totalling 2 million square metres of space, much more than has been developed in Poland during the entire transformation period since 1989.” Dobrzycki first introduced Panattoni to the Polish market in August; but working with Americans in the warehouse industry is not a novelty for him. He has previously co-operated with Menard Doswell (the firm who built the Alliance Logistics Centre in Blonie, near Warsaw).
Step by tiny step
Panattoni has put down its first business roots here in the Warsaw Financial Centre building. Talking to “Eurobuild” in late August, Robert Dobrzycki admitted, with a disarming grin, that although he is already speaking to potential employees, ten of whom will suffice in the first year of operations, he is still the Americans’ first and only representative in Poland. He describes his intention thusly: “I began by setting up the office, and the next stage is market reconnaissance and finding the localities where we can invest. Then all we have to do is wait for the good plot to become available and buy it. Initially, we are not going to compete with the largest market players, but shall rather focus on industrial specialists rich projects, the kind of ones which no one likes. These might be so-called ‘build-to-suit’ or non-standard buildings.”
In the USA, Panattoni is successfully competing with ProLogis, already a powerful company on the Polish warehouse space market.: Is Panattoni going to be another big battlefield of these two giants? Robert Dobrzycki is frank in stating: “It is still too early to compete with the larger facilities. At the beginning we want to make our presence felt on the market, and are doing that with small projects of few thousand square metres. But you must remember we can build many such 'trifles', e.g. ten orders in different locatilites. This means that we may be able to boast commissions amounting to as much as 50,000 sqm in a short time.” Dobrzycki also stresses that Panattoni will not be taking over ready and existing projects: it will concentrate solely on the development.
My head office is applying no pressure and is not expecting me to deliver results in only a month or two. Robert Dobrzycki
Panattoni - a conservative?
Developers already active on the Polish market are surely far from happy with the appearance of a new, experienced player with such financial clout. But it comes as no surprise that they are reluctant to comment. An official of a British development company that also entered a market a relatively short time ago, told us: “Carrying out small contracts for specific customers means Panattoni is taking a very conservative approach. In my opinion, if you want to survive in Central Europe, your must always be able to offer existing and ready-to-use warehousing.”
Panattoni’s Warsaw manager does not rule out the development of speculative projects and admits his company intends to build a large warehouse in the future, both for tenants interested in large (5,000 to 10,000 sq.m) space and also for small firms that require between 1,000 and 5,000 sq.m. space. The American company has fixed plans regarding the size of the Polish warehouse market, and however bold Dobrzycki acts, ponder what: “Everything depends on building plots and demand. Should we find an attractive 10-hectare site, we will buy it. We are also interested in purchasing a 90-hectare plot of land. It is no secret that problems exist in Poland concerning appropriate sites covered by local spacial development plans, so if we find the right piece of land, we shall grab it."
Site with a future
Mr. Dobrzycki makes much of the fact that: "The basic lines along with motorways and roads are to develop are aleady known, so it is not difficult to work out which localities and properties will bring future success: Upper Silesia, Wrocław, Poznań, Łódź and its surrounding area, and Warsaw". In short, all the regions where fierce competition already exists between developers of storage facilities. Most already own sites there.
An American power
Panattoni Development Company is a privately owned developer established in 1986 by Carl Panattoni, which has its HQ in Sacramento, California. Over the past five years it has built around 900,000 sq.m of space annually. The firm focuses its operations mainly on the American market (18 offices), but is also active in Canada (based in Toronto) and in Europe (office in London). Panattoni operates primarily on the logistics market, which amounts to 80 percent of its activity - the remaining 20 percent being the development of offices and shopping projects.
Poland, Czech the lead list
Foreign investors, Panattoni among them, are fully aware of Poland’s high rate of economic growth – in 2004, a 5.4 pct rise in GDP – a figure that has not been seen in Western European countries in a long time. Another reason for foreign interest in Poland is the growth of the warehouse market. Poland enjoys an anviable geographic location, and even the absence of a developed motorway network is not providing detrimental to investment. Robert Dobrzycki agress: "EU funds are already reaching Poland and are being utilised, so something concrete is really happening in the field." The company is also opening offices in France and the Czech Republic.
The warehouse market is definitely heating up, and the competition is getting even more intense now that Poland has entered the EU. In this war, it will take a few more years for the winner to emerge.
— Ewa Andrzejewska, Eurobuild 9/2005
