Nestle sees acquisition opportunity in Poland

The world’s biggest food maker, is seeking acquisition targets in Poland to boost production in the European Union’s largest ex-communist economy, the head of its Polish operations said.

 The Switzerland-based company expects more manufacturing capacity
in Poland, where its 2008 sales reached PLN 3.1 billion ($830
million), would help reduce the effect of the weaker local currency
that boosts costs of imports.

“In every difficult time, there is an opportunity,” Leszek
Wencel, chief executive of Nestle’s Polish unit,
told a news conference. “Poland is on top of the possible
acquisition list,” he said, without elaborating.

Nestle has no plans to cut any of its 4,900 workers at eight
factories in Poland, which make products under such local brands asWiniary and Princessa.

The retreating zloty, which has shed a third against the euro,
will help the company boost earnings from Polish exports — about 10%
of culinary products and a third of sweets.