Baltona (full: ''Baltona Foreign Trade Company Spółka Akcyjna'', former ''Baltona - zaopatrywanie statków'') is a Polish company acting mainly on a duty-free market in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and abroad.

History

Baltona was established on 3 September 1946, as a private company. Its principal activity was supplying ships in Polish and foreign ports. On 29 December 1949, Baltona was

nationalized Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

for the symbolic price of 1

Polish złoty The złoty (alternative spelling: ''zloty''; Polish: ''polski złoty'', ;The nominative plural, used for numbers ending in 2, 3 and 4 (except those in 12, 13 and 14), is ; the genitive plural, used for all other numbers, is abbreviation: z� ...

. On 1 January 1951, the enterprise subordinated to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Trade. Its business consisted of supplying Polish ships, planes, diplomatic posts, airports, seaports, border crossings, and even scientific expeditions. In 1957, Baltona joined the International Ship Suppliers Association (ISSA) and began exchanging information among

ship chandler A ship chandler is a retail dealer who specializes in providing supplies or equipment for ships. Synopsis For traditional sailing ships, items that could be found in a chandlery include sail-cloth, rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch, linseed oil ...

s. In 1960, Baltona extended its operations to airport facilities by an agreement with

LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. A founding member of IATA, it is one of the world's oldest airlines. With a fleet of 87 aircraft as of June 2025, LOT is Europe's 16th ...

to supply company's planes with goods intended for retail sale and consumption by crews and passengers. The company grew and became a large export-import company during the 1970s and 1980s. During the time of the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

, it was one of the few companies offering Western goods to Polish consumers for

foreign currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific environm ...

. At the height of its popularity during the mid-1980s, Baltona operated nearly 250 stores and had over 2,000 employees. In 1984 it was transformed into a

joint stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's capital stock, stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their share (finance), shares (certifi ...

( or S.A.). In 2013, Baltona took over Chacalli de Decke, a Belgium-based duty-free company. It has since further developed operations in the food and beverages sector. In 2020 Baltona left

Warsaw Stock Exchange The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) () is a stock exchange in Warsaw, Poland. Founded in 1817, it was located in the Saxon Palace until 1877 when it was moved to the Exchange Building at the Saxon Garden. Currently, it is located at ul. Książęca ...

after being acquired by the Polskie Porty Lotnicze Capital Group.

References

History of the company

External links

Baltona, home page
Hard currency shops in socialist countries Retail companies established in 1946 1946 establishments in Poland Government-owned companies of Poland Retail companies of Poland Polish Joint-stock companies Nationalized companies Privatization in Poland {{poland-company-stub