6 world famous companies set up by Poles

I know that many of you, like myself, are economy students. That’s why I’ll do my best to tell you as much as I can about polish economy. I’d like to start my new series with introducing world famous companies that were established by Poles or people born in Poland, polish Jews or whatever you call them. Enjoy!

1. Patek Philippe

Patek Philippe is considered the best watch producer in the world. What really distinguishes the brand from the others, except brand’s history and image, are eye-popping prices: at least five figures for an upscale watch. One of the watches made in the 1930s was sold at the auction in Geneva in 2014 for 24 mln$ becoming the most expensive watch on earth.

However, not many people realize that the company is a work of Poles who were forced to emigrate from Russian-occupied Poland after the fail of November uprising in 1830. One of them was Antoni Patek, honored with the Golden Cross of Virtuti Militari (highest Polish military honor). He settled down in Switzerland in his 20s and started a business with a polish friend Franciszek Czapek. They established Patek, Czapek & Co. in 1839. Due to the very different views on business, they split up a couple of years later.  After that, Patek joined forces with a French watchmaking master Adrien Philippe. That’s how Patek Philippe was born in 1851. At the beginning, the company produced watches for Polish elites and decorated them with images of polish historical events as well as portraits of national heroes such as Tadeusz Kościuszko or Józef Poniatowski. In 1851 the company started supplying its products to the royals –Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. Later on, not only royals but also intellectuals, writers, musicians, and scientist got their watches from Patek as well, including such famous individuals as Wagner, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Einstein, Skłodowska Curie or Stalin. The company revolutionized watchmaking by combining beauty with precision and quickly managed to expand their business on an international scale.  

Real watch-aficionados should visit the company’s Museum in Geneva that includes watches from as early as the 16^th century. It is also an important scholarly resource with a library and over 7000 books and documentaries about watches.

2. Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein was born in Krakow’s Jewish Ghetto in 1872. Her mother had a huge impact on her life as she raised her eight daughters teaching them about the power of beauty and love.  

Helena graduated from medical sciences at the University of Krakow and later on she married a fellow student declining the candidate picked by her father – an older widower. That rough with parents over a life partner made her packed up and move to live with her uncle in Australia.

In 1902 she started her business career in Australia distributing the beauty cream made by her mum of herbs and almonds. A couple of years later she opened one of the very first beauty salons in London and then expanded her business to the USA, launching salons in NYC, San Francisco, and Boston. In 1923 she had more than 820 beauty products in her portfolio that were extremely popular among Broadway stars and USA elites.  

As a very clever businesswoman not only did she appreciate the value of effective marketing and luxurious packaging but also celebrity endorsement. She was the first woman to introduce many beauty products like a sunscreen, an eyelash curler, and a waterproof mascara.  

She died on 1st April 1965 in New York City as one of the richest and most influential women worldwide at that time.   

3. Max Factor

Probably none of you ever heard of Maksymilian Faktorowicz but I bet all of you know Max Factor.  

Maksymilian was born in 1872 in Zduńska Wola, a small town in central Poland. At the age of 14, he started his first job at a pharmacy as an assistant. Later on, he worked for a leading hair stylist, cosmetics creator, and a wig maker. He made a name for himself working with the theatre that performed for Russian nobility and soon was recognized as an official cosmetics expert for the royal family.  

 In 1914 Maksymilian emigrated to the USA where he started building his cosmetics company. He settled down in LA to be as close as possible to the movie industry.  Firstly the company was specialized in theatrical and movie makeup as well as made-to-order wigs. Maksymilian was widely recognized among actresses as he used to apply to make up to Hollywood stars himself. He often worked with such figures as Pola Negri, Frank Sinatra, Charlie Chaplin or John Wayne. His makeup skills even brought him an Oscar in 1934 for the Frankenstein movie.

In 1920 his growing rage of beauty products became available to the broader public as Max wanted every girl to be able to feel and look like a Hollywood star.  None of you probably knows that Max was the first person who started using the phrase ‘make-up’ which back then was considered vulgar and not something to be used in a polite society.  The company also invented concealer and liquid fluid, as well as figured out that lipstick should have a stick form.

4. Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Now is the time for a real Polish-American dream. Szmul Gelbfisz was born in Warsaw in 1879. Shortly after his father died, Szmul decided to go to the England (where he began using the name Samuel Goldfish) seeking a better life. However it was difficult for an uneducated Jewish from Poland to find a decent job there, so in 1896 he decided to move to the USA. Starting his career as a salesman in a glove making company, he rose to become one of the most well-known names in the history of Hollywood.

In 1913 he established his production first company along with his brother-in-law. But what he always wanted was becoming independent and that’s why he set up a new venture on his own - Samuel Goldwyn Productions in 1923.  Samuel kept on making numerous successful movies in collaboration with well-known directors and the best writers, quickly becoming America’s most successful independent movie producer.

Samuel Goldwyn is also known for his malapropisms such as If I look confused, know that I am thinking or Let’s have some new clichés, or I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead” and my favorite Coffee isn’t my cup of tea.

5. Oskar Troplowitz

Oskar Troplowitz was born in 1863 in Gliwice, southern Poland. The Troplowitz family was well known in Gliwice as they run the big scale wine trade and a construction company which soon made them rich.  Even though Oscar inherited his family’s business, he had a different plan for life. In 1888 he graduated with a degree in pharmacy at the University of Wrocław. Two years later, he acquired Paul C. Beiersdorf’s, company in Germany and that was the beginning of his bright entrepreneurial career.

Oskar, as a market-oriented and innovative entrepreneur, wanted to build an international business and develop high-quality products. He was one of the first entrepreneurs to introduce company benefits for employees. He reduced the working week to 48 hours without cutting pay and gave blue-collar and white-collar workers vacation pay. In addition, he also set up a welfare fund and a fund for widows and orphans.

He made a name for himself inventing toothpaste and the so-called leucoplasts - the first self-adhesive plaster. However, the Nivea cream and soap were the biggest inventions of Troplowitz. The name „Nivea” derives from the Latin word meaning „snow-white”.  Troplowitz was convinced that branded goods offering reliable quality and real, substantial benefits to the consumer would be a successful concept for the future. This work laid the foundations for the company’s strategy today.

6. Warner Bros

It isn’t entirely certain which of the four Warner brothers were born in Poland, according to some sources it was only Hirsch, others say that Itzhak was the only one to be born abroad, in London or Canada.

Life in occupied Poland was tough - men were subjected to forced labor and unable to provide for their families, and children couldn’t get an education. Out of concern for his family, Benjamin, the father of the boys, decided to move to the United States in the 1880s  in search of a better life.

After settling down in Baltimore, the family went by the surname of Warner, which was easier for English-speakers to pronounce. Also, the brothers Hirsch, Aaron, Shmul, and Itzhak changed their names to Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack.

It was Sam who got interested in motion picture and spotted the opportunity in a new form of entertainment. The brothers decided to purchase a film projector and started traveling around nearest states organizing movie screenings. In 1903 they managed to open their first motion picture theater called Bijou. By 1908, having rights to more than 200 movies, the  Warner brothers’ company was not only a raising film producer but also a growing distribution giant. In 1918 they released their first full-length motion picture My Four Years in Germany, which tells the story of James W. Gerard’s tenure as U.S. ambassador to Germany during World War I. Thanks to the success of this picture they were able to purchase a studio in Hollywood later that year and started making the company’s first famous Looney Tunes cartoon series, featuring Bugs Bunny.