Mariusz Świtalski

Mariusz Świtalski (* 1962 ) is a Polish entrepreneur. His fortune was estimated at around 250 million euros in the annually updated rich list of the Polish edition of Forbes magazine in 2013, which put him in 18th place on this list. Some media also refer to him as " Poznański Al Capone " because of his criminal past .

A Eurocash wholesale market

Biedronka supermarket

Żabka business

Life

Świtalski grew up in orphanages. For the longest time he lived in the home of a Franciscan order in Szamotuły . This was followed by a two-year training as a plumber. Afterwards he visited a construction technology center in Poznan . In 1979 he was arrested for burglary and theft and sentenced to several years in prison in 1981. In the 1980s he traded in the Poznan markets, first specializing in coffee, later on video cassettes.

Entrepreneur

In 1987 he founded Elektromis Sp.z oo in Poznan , which imported and sold clothing from Thailand, consumer electronics, computers and alcohol; in a short time it grew into a large trading company. In 1992 Elektromis already had 50 wholesale branches in Poland.

In 1993 Świtalski Elektromis changed its name to Eurocash and quickly developed the company into Poland's largest food wholesaler. In 1995 he sold the company to the Portuguese group Jerónimo Martins . In the same year he founded a sales network of discounters under the brand Biedronka (German: Ladybird). He also sold this company to Jerónimo Martins in 1998 . At the time, the network had around 250 sales outlets; it is now Poland's leading supermarket chain.

In 1998, Świtalski founded the Żabka Polska convenience shop chain based on the concept of 7-Eleven retailers. After establishing it, he also sold this company in 2007 to the Czech investment company Penta Investments .

A new project of the entrepreneur is the department store chain Czerwona Torebka SA. Small merchants are to offer their goods in a network of halls also covering the whole of Poland. With this, Czerwona Torebka is supposed to replace the still popular, open-air permanent markets known as bazar in Poland . The first hall was opened in July 2011 in Żory , Silesia . Up to 1900 halls are to be built over the next few years.

Świtalski published various newspapers, the weekly Miliarder , ran a radio station and financed the football team of KS “Sokół” Pniewy in Pniewy . He founded a bank in Poznan, which was liquidated in 1995. He owns the investment company Sowiniec FIZ , which develops real estate. Świtalski also owns extensive land in the area between Puszczykowo and Sowiniec .

See also

• List of the richest Poles

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 100 Najbogatszych Polaków 2013 ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Forbes Polska , print and online (in Polish, accessed May 24, 2013)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Mariusz Świtalski. Biznesmen z Czerwoną Torebką ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Polish magazine Newsweek on February 9, 2013 (in Polish, accessed May 24, 2013) 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Mariusz Świtalski rozkręca nowy biznes. Uda must you? at Gazeta.pl (Poznań) on February 5, 2013 (in Polish, accessed on May 24, 2013)
4. ↑ ^{a b} # 25 Mariusz Świtalski in the Reichen Ranking 2009 of the magazine Wprost (in Polish, accessed on May 24, 2013)

Web links

• Website of Czerwona Torebka with tooltip Mariusz Świtalski