Market features in Poland

Nowadays, more and more companies are striving to establish a leading position in their industry by expanding into new markets. Entering an external market allows not only to attract new customers and increase competitiveness by strengthening their core competencies, but also by minimizing the risk of losses in crisis situations.

We continue sharing our experience about STG's entry into the Polish market.

How to find new customers in a foreign market

To reach a new market, it is necessary to define a portrait of the target audience and an idea of future customers.

There is no need to try to sell everything to everyone, you have to work with specific segments and understand their current needs. You can put yourself in the shoes of the future client of the company and understand what their needs are.

A clear understanding of the realities of the market will help you develop a viable product promotion strategy.

It is necessary to monitor online resources, to analyze the websites of companies and then start contacting the company.

We value other people's time. If we understand that we won't be interesting to the company, then we don't waste their time interacting. Everyone has their own market niche, purpose, strategy-it's okay.

To deliver a personalized message to your new target audience, you must also consider the specifics of a different mentality.

It would be a mistake to copy an established business model in a new market without considering cultural differences.

The similarity of mentalities is a bonus in building our new partnerships. It's easier for us to understand each other and get our priorities right.

Ideally, at the time of entering a new market, it is better to have experience interacting with foreign partners, for example, by selling abroad through local distributors.

If you have no experience with a particular country, then it is also good to be armed with the elementary rules of business communication but be prepared for the fact that you may make mistakes, and learn during the process.

Specifics of Polish garment companies

From my personal experience with Polish garment companies, they can be conventionally divided into three types.

The first type: market leaders. Companies that know what they are paying for. They give preference to well-known players who have a long history of brand recognition and stable quality. These clothing companies sew corporate apparel using expensive, well-known types of fabrics on the European market.

Sometimes it even goes to a completely prohibitive level when non-core staff units that don't come into contact with serious production risks wear sophisticated protective fabrics according to corporate regulations.

The second type: “hostages” of circumstances. These are companies that have had experience with high-quality brand fabric, but because of the specifics of distribution are forced to buy cheaper fabric. They have an understanding of what an expensive fabric is, how it performs in use and what its quality is.

Participating in small tenders, where the requirements for materials are far from ideal, forces companies to buy lower quality fabrics.

The third type: players from a different league. Companies that, due to the tight market rush, cannot afford to go over budget and are forced to compromise, sacrificing the quality of the final product.

These companies buy low-grade fabrics from the East Asian region and are not willing to engage in dialogue because quality is not at the forefront of their value system.

Pakistan fabrics on the Polish market

Polish garment companies note that the fabrics from Pakistan are competitive and meet all existing requirements for specialty fabrics.

Companies that have already had experience working with Pakistan know that this region has the best raw material resources.

In Pakistan, 90% of the land is allocated for cotton cultivation. The climate is ideal for growing long-staple Egyptian cotton, which is one of the best cotton varieties that requires careful processing and strict quality control. And this is one of the best grades of cotton, which requires careful cultivation and strict quality control.

Also everyone is well aware that the production facilities of the most famous brands are not located in Europe, but in regions with more suitable climatic conditions.

During the meetings, some companies shared their negative experiences and concerns. When working with Asian regions, companies encountered a certain heterogeneity of the batch, when some of the material differs in color or does not correspond to the declared samples.

A non-homogeneous batch is what some Asian countries often sin. Different raw materials can be used to produce a batch. The larger the batch volume, the more difficult it is to trace the scrap. It has been a historical practice for some market models to focus on quantity rather than quality.

This situation is also related to the fact that some unscrupulous distributors, violating their obligations, form a batch of available options from partner plants without regard to the stated specifications.

Working directly with the manufacturer not only eliminates such risks, but also provides a significant bonus – the ability to produce fabrics for specific customer needs, in the necessary volumes with guaranteed constant quality.

How to evaluate fabric quality

When choosing a fabric for bulk purchasing, a sewing company must be one hundred percent sure that it will get a really first-class material, and that the product it produces will not only not lose in its characteristics, but will become higher in terms of quality.

The first impression of the product can be made by examining samples in a catalog: evaluate the softness of the fabric, texture, density. But this is not enough.

To make sure that the final product – the workwear – will really last and retain its properties, it is necessary to do test trials.

The typical testing procedure is a trial wearing. Upon customer's request, STG provides the necessary amount of fabric so that the manufacturer can work with it: to sew the test suit, to wash it for the required number of cycles, to make sure in practical conditions that the material retains its protective properties in the process of operation.

If the clothing maintains its protective properties throughout its service life, the garment company's customer will be satisfied and return to our partners for more and more. As a result, all parties win.

The test wear is the most effective way of determining whether the stated characteristics correspond to reality, avoiding emotional evaluation and focusing on the individual comfort and protective properties of the garment.

During negotiations with our partners, we settled not only on internal pinpoint tests of fabric samples, but also came to the importance and necessity of test wear, which in practice will give an opportunity to evaluate the level of materials, their quality and comfort degree.

Following the results of communication with garment companies in Poland, we can summarize that our new partners showed a sincere interest to the offered product and opportunities for further successful cooperation.

The first part of the article about STG establishment on the Polish market is available via the link.