The conference inaugurating the Polish Cosmetics Industry Promotion Programme
The conference inaugurating the Polish Cosmetics Industry Promotion Programme and a visit of foreign contractors and journalists – Warsaw, 13th – 16th September, 2012
The project for the cosmetics industry is being carried out by SPC House of Media. The agency is going to organize more than 30 business and promotion events with the participation of Polish cosmetics producers, as well as an international advertising campaign.
The inauguration conference was preceded by a press briefing hosting Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, Deputy Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economy, Roland Sprung, President of SPC House of Media and Aleksandra Kretkowska, the SPC House of Media Programme Coordinator. The briefing was dominated by the issue of increasing the financial support for the cosmetics sector, as it had turned out to be the most active of all the 15 sectors designated by the Ministry of Economy and was the first to consume all its allotted resources. The latter have up till the present amounted to 9 million Polish zloty: 4 million for the campaign and B2B activities of the cosmetic sector as such, and 5 million zlotys to support the particular producers participating in the programme. The call for the producers’ applications was closed already before the programme was officially inaugurated, as the sum of the Polish cosmetic companies’ applications substantially exceeded the available resources. Hence, the sector is at present applying for additional funding to be granted and awaiting a fresh call for applications in order to fully make use of the project’s potential.
Aleksandra Kretkowska, Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik and Roland Sprung during the press briefing
More than 120 people took part in the inauguration conference on the 14th of September.: representatives of Polish cosmetics producers, their foreign contractors, representatives of chambers of commerce and of Polish and foreign media. The guests came from more than a dozen European countries as well as from Brazil, China, the United Arab Emirates, the USA and Algeria.
The conference was opened by Minister Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik and Roland Sprung, President of SPC House of Media – the programme manager.
Deputy Minister of Economy Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik at the conference opening
The layout and slogan of the international advertising campaign were presented and the ad spot promoting the Polish cosmetics industry on foreign markets was shown for the first time. The materials will all be used in the course of the three-year world-wide advertising campaign, conducted in the press, the internet and at fairs and other events.
During the conference, Blanka Chmurzyńska-Brown, Managing Director of the Polish Union of Cosmetics Industry, grouping almost a 100 companies, presented a report on the Polish cosmetics producers and their foreign exports, compiled especially for the programme.
Blanka Chmurzyńska-Brown presenting a report on the Polish cosmetics producers
Polish companies (Oceanic S.A., Clarena, Bandi, Dax Cosmetics, Verona Products Professional, Ava Cosmetics Laboratory) gave short presentations on given aspects of their activities.
The panel discussion on „The Polish Cosmetics Industry from a World Perspective – What Differentiates It?” was moderated by Katarzyna Pytkowska, Vice Chancellor of the Cosmetics and Health Care Professional College with the following speakers participating: Piotr Koziej, owner of Dr Piotr Koziej Cosmetics Centre, Andrzej Kozłowski, President of Verona Products Professional and Lidia Lewandowska, editor of the Magazyn Kosmetyki ( The Cosmetics Magazine ).
Lidia Lewandowska, Andrzej Kozłowski, Piotr Koziej and Katarzyna Pytkowska during the panel discussion
Emphasis was placed on the professionalism of the Polish cosmetics industry staff, the high level of production technologies and the perfect quality of the products. It is worth noting that Poland and Lithuania are the only countries in Europe where cosmetology is taught at a university level.
The following speakers took part in the international panel on the Polish cosmetics industry and the opportunities and challenges local producers face in today’s globalised, but at the same time engulfed by crisis economy: Auani Cusma de Paula, editor of Cosmetica News from Brazil, Emanuela Treneva, Sales Director at the greatest US cosmetics fair – HBA Global Expo, Rachel Liverman from Birchbox company, Felicia Walker Benson from Bergdorf Goodman and ThisThatBeauty. The debate was moderated by Andrew McDougall, editor of Cosmetics Design Europe, one of the most important cosmetic branch media in the world.
Felicia Walker Benson, Emanuela Treneva, Rachel Liverman, Auani Cusma de Paula and Andrew McDougall during the international panel discussion
On the subsequent two days, the 15th and 16th of September, the foreign guests taking part in the journalists’ and contractors’ visit which accompanied the conference, had an opportunity to hold business meetings with Polish cosmetics producers and to visit the Beauty Forum & SPA cosmetics fair, or even… to try out the beauty treatments based on Polish cosmetic products to which the Polish companies invited them at different Warsaw spa centres.
The next such visit will be organized in a year’s time. Meanwhile, Polish cosmetics companies will present themselves at international events – already between the 20th and 22nd of September at the InterchCharm fair in Kiev in the Ukraine, in Moscow in October, in Hong Kong in November, and then in Bologne, Dubai and Istambul.
