DANONE invests over PLN 100 million in new technologies and creates 250 new jobs in Katowice

DANONE Planning Center Katowice officially opened.

In the presence of the Silesian Vice-Governor Michał Kopański, Deputy Mayor of Katowice Bogumił Sobula, Stanisław Korman – Member of the Metropolitan Board – and representatives of DANONE, the company officially opened its Planning Center in Katowice, creating approximately 250 new jobs.

At the DANONE Planning Center, a specialized team of experts will be responsible for supply chain planning for the company’s European factories. The cost of implementing the technologies necessary to operate the center exceeds PLN 100 million. This investment creates development opportunities for Polish professionals and represents another recognition of DANONE’s operations in Poland by the company’s global structures.

The team based in Katowice will manage supply planning for selected DANONE factories across Europe, as well as the distribution of finished products to European markets. The center will coordinate planning for fresh dairy and plant-based products, as well as specialized nutrition, including infant food and medical nutrition. Planning will be conducted in a holistic manner – from strategic planning up to five years ahead, through tactical planning for several months, down to production-line scheduling.

“The construction of the DANONE Planning Center Katowice is an important step towards building a flexible, integrated organization based on data analysis and advanced technological systems. It will support the development of future-ready competencies among our employees and ultimately introduce a single, unified supply-chain planning tool across Europe,” said Roman Pokorski, Director of the DANONE Planning Center Katowice.

Expansion of DANONE’s presence in Poland

Opening the office in Katowice marks both an expansion of DANONE’s structures in Poland and a stronger presence in the Silesian region, where the company already operates a cheese and yogurt factory in Bieruń and bottling plants of Żywiec Zdrój in Radziechowy-Wieprz and Jeleśnia.

“The arrival of another global brand in Katowice confirms our strong position among investors. The capital of the Silesian Voivodeship lies in the heart of the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis, home to over 2 million residents. It is well connected and, thanks to its academic traditions, offers easy access to highly qualified professionals. This time the investor appreciated the maturity of the local labour market, targeting its offer primarily at experienced specialists,” said Bogumił Sobula, Deputy Mayor of Katowice.

Management and senior leadership roles will account for nearly 20% of all positions, while expert and specialist roles will represent approximately 80% of the organizational structure.

Strengthening DANONE’s position in Poland

The Katowice Planning Center is not the company’s first competence center in Poland. The decision to locate it here was influenced by the positive experience of the Polish DANONE team in building such centers. Specialized units supporting DANONE’s European operations are already based in Warsaw.

One example is the Business Services Center, responsible for operational processes such as order management, payments, financial transactions, HR and payroll, as well as data and project management. It currently serves Central Europe, the Nordics, the UK and Ireland, and is planned to support all European markets where DANONE operates. The transformation of this center will create an additional 180 jobs in Poland.

In addition, a Warsaw-based team of around 200 specialists in the IT & Data Hub is responsible for consumer, production and business data analytics, as well as developing new ways of using technology and data.

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Towards future-ready competencies

All competence centers will now work together to streamline operations and provide employees with opportunities to grow in their current roles while preparing for future ones. DANONE closely follows the global technological transformation and is actively developing the digital skills of its workforce.

“The roles we have today will not be the same tomorrow. Our goal is to transform the working model so employees can prepare for new challenges already today. For example, today a planner’s success is measured by generating a plan. Tomorrow this role will be performed by a system, so the employee will need new skills, such as understanding complex data ecosystems,” added Roman Pokorski.

Fot. Danone