Poland remains one of the key investment markets in Europe for companies from the food and pet care sectors. Businesses are expanding production and logistics capacity while also investing in renewable energy. Mars, the producer of snacks, confectionery and food for dogs and cats, has already invested more than PLN 4 billion in Poland. In 2023–2027, the company plans to allocate nearly another PLN 1 billion to expanding production capacity at its chocolate factory in Janaszówek.
Mars is also working on new solutions beyond production itself. With a broad portfolio of sweet snacks and chewing gum, the company is developing expertise in product display at checkout zones, an area that remains important for impulse purchases.
“Over the past five years, we have invested €1.5 billion in Europe. By the end of this year, we will invest an additional €1 billion. A large part of these investments will be carried out in Poland,” said Ewa Łapińska, General Manager for Poland and the Baltic States at Mars Wrigley, in an interview with Newseria.
Mars operates 24 factories in 10 European Union countries. The company has been present in Poland since 1992 and currently runs five production plants in Błonie, Sochaczew, Janaszówek, Poznań and Niepołomice, as well as shared service centres. It employs around 3,500 people in Poland, and its factories produce goods both for the domestic market and for export.
“We are investing in Poland in supply chain resilience, modern technologies, digitalization, but also in environmental solutions that help us achieve the goals set out in our global Net Zero Roadmap,” Łapińska said during the European Economic Congress in Katowice.
Investment in supply chain resilience is becoming increasingly important across the sector. Companies are more often locating production closer to end markets, expanding warehouse facilities and diversifying suppliers in order to reduce risks related to possible disruptions in global trade and logistics. Poland remains one of the key production and logistics hubs in Central and Eastern Europe.
Alongside strengthening its supply chain, Mars is accelerating the digitalization and automation of its processes. Production plants are implementing automation and artificial intelligence solutions, including robots for packing and palletizing, autonomous vehicles and machine learning-based systems for monitoring production parameters.
“Investment in Polish factories is high on our agenda. For example, the chocolate products factory in Janaszówek is currently implementing modern automation and expanding its production capacity. We will increase it by more than 60 percent, allocating around PLN 1 billion for this purpose in 2023–2027,” Łapińska said.
Thanks to these investments, the factory in Janaszówek near Sochaczew will become Mars’s second-largest chocolate factory in Europe. It already produces an average of 4.3 million packages of sweets per day. Products from the plant are shipped to more than 50 countries worldwide, mainly to European markets.
“The chewing gum factory in Poznań is also at the centre of our investments. There, we are investing mainly in warehouse expansion, but also in operational agility and new technologies,” added the General Manager for Poland and the Baltic States at Mars Wrigley.
Another major category of projects concerns sustainable development, including initiatives aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions and energy consumption. Increasingly, such measures cover the entire value chain, from production to logistics and distribution.
“All 10 Mars factories producing confectionery and chewing gum in Europe are now powered by renewable energy. This environmental aspect is very important to us,” Łapińska emphasized.
At the Janaszówek factory, a wastewater treatment plant has helped reduce water consumption by around 20 percent and uses biogas from production waste to generate energy. In recent years, the facility has also reduced energy intensity by around 15 percent and water consumption by more than 40 percent, while completely eliminating waste sent to landfill.
Mars’s decarbonization efforts also include investments beyond its production plants. The company has launched a global fund worth $250 million to support innovation in agriculture, ingredients and packaging — areas that account for the largest share of emissions across its value chain. According to the company, more than 90 percent of its carbon footprint comes from purchased raw materials and services, as well as agriculture and land use.
“Low emissions and reaching net zero are very high on Mars’s global agenda. We want to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and cut emissions by half by 2030. For us, these are not just declarations. We are consistently implementing our goals and already seeing measurable results. Globally, we have increased net sales by more than 69 percent, reaching around $55 billion annually, while reducing our carbon footprint by 16.4 percent compared with 2015,” Łapińska explained.
One example of these activities is investment in renewable energy carried out in cooperation with external partners. The company has signed an agreement with GoldenPeaks Capital covering the development of more than 100 solar projects in Poland. Their total capacity is expected to exceed 129 MW, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of around 100,000 households.
“These installations are intended to provide renewable energy not only for Mars in Poland, but also for the broader value chain,” Łapińska said.
An important area in which Mars has many years of expertise is the proper display of impulse products in checkout zones. Snacks such as chewing gum, including Orbit and Airwaves, chocolate bars such as Snickers and Twix, and small-format chocolate products such as M&M’s respond to the consumer need for “something for me, right now” at the end of a shopping trip.
As checkout zones change from traditional to self-service formats, the shopping process is also changing. This affects how consumers interact with impulse products such as snacks. Despite growing automation, the transaction zone remains one of the most effective sales areas in a store. It can generate around 5 percent of turnover while occupying only about 1 percent of retail space.
“Together with key retailers in Poland, we are currently carrying out several projects that are genuinely changing the way checkout zones function. We use extensive know-how from both the Polish market and other European countries to create solutions that attract consumer attention and clearly generate additional sales value in impulse categories,” said the Mars Wrigley representative.
The snack category has a meaningful impact on the value of the shopping basket, and the checkout zone remains a key sales location for it. The vast majority of shoppers say they have made an impulse purchase at least once.
“With the right product arrangement and a well-designed, visible checkout display, we are able to increase conversion from 2 percent to as much as 6 percent. This means up to a threefold increase in sales of the impulse category, which is one of the highest-margin categories for retailers,” Łapińska explained. “That is why the checkout zone remains one of the key areas of focus for retail chains today.”
During the European Economic Congress, Ewa Łapińska also took part in a panel discussion on contemporary challenges for leaders and the broader meaning of leadership.
