Last week I was in Poland taking part in the official opening ceremony of our second European plant in Łódź, Poland. Michael Dell and I were joined by employees, customers, members of the Polish national and local government, international ambassadors and media for the event.
The facility in Łódź represents a significant investment from Dell and its suppliers and signals our commitment to growing our presence in the Central and Eastern European and Scandinavian markets. Locating our plant here is already significantly improving our service to the region's customers and has strengthened our competitiveness by cutting up to two days off our delivery times.
In addition to its proximity to our customers and its good transport links, Łódź also gives us access to the great talent and skills of the local workforce in Poland. We started production in November 2007 with about 400 people. We now have more than 1,200 employees.
One of the questions I was asked most in the event was how Dell will contribute to the lives of our employees and the wider community. It is our goal to be a positive contributor. Consistent with this goal, our Łódź facility has a number of community projects underway. These include enabling two Łódź schools from the Widzew district to receive Dell products worth US$35,000 and more than 100 Dell employees planting trees in the Lublinek forest park. This was the first stage of an initiative to plant 130,000 trees in Łódź and its surrounding area last year. This project and many like it around the world, show how Dell is partnering with customers and members of the ReGeneration – people of all ages who care about the environment.
I'm proud that our newest factory is also our most advanced worldwide. It has benefited from the knowledge and best practice of all our facilities around the world, in particular from the skills of our Irish team in Limerick.
This is another historic step for our commitment to customers and growth in the region. Here are some photos:
Ribbon cutting (from left to right): Michael Dell (Chairman and, CEO), Jacek Murawski (General Manager, Dell Poland), Jerzy Kropiwnicki (Mayor of Łódź), Mike Cannon (President, Global Operations), Łukasz Wysocki (Gold Award Winner, Manufacturing).
Plant Entrance
Note from Lionel: We posted more photos from the event on Flickr.