LOTTE Wedel CEO Maciej Herman outlines how Poland’s oldest chocolate brand is turning heritage into growth, pushing innovation, developing partnerships across sectors and expanding capacity to build a stronger operation.

Q: How do you balance heritage with preparing for the future?

E.Wedel is the oldest Polish chocolate brand, and we are very proud of that heritage. The logo itself is part of this story – it comes from Emil Wedel, the second generation of the family, who began signing every product with his handwritten signature to differentiate it from imitators. That signature remains our logo to this day.

Jan Wedel was a deeply innovative person, and I strongly believe that long-lasting tradition is only possible when you are constantly innovating. At E.Wedel, we combine heritage and modernity deliberately. Our strategy, called Wedel Universe, reflects this approach – we are not just selling a product on a confectionery shelf, but building a world that consumers can experience across many different touchpoints.

At the core, of course, is still the product. But pleasure goes far beyond taste alone. It is also about surprise, discovery and memorable experiences. 

Q: What are your investment and expansion plans?

Last year we reached almost €400 million in turnover. Our goal now is to double the size of the business. That requires production capacity we do not yet have. We have built three new buildings in recent years – an extension to the factory, a new warehouse and the museum building. But the factory itself was built by Jan Wedel 100 years ago.

We are also located in the centre of Warsaw, which has real advantages – the Chocolate Factory E.Wedel Museum is accessible to everyone – but also significant cost disadvantages. That is why, in the coming years, we will consider building a second factory outside the city. That investment will require new equipment and new suppliers and partnerships. We have long worked with German manufacturers for production machinery, and we will continue to look for partners who are open to working with a company that moves quickly and values innovation.

Doubling the business also means becoming meaningfully more international. Today, around 90% of our sales are generated in Poland. We have identified a few priority regions and countries, primarily in Europe, where we want to build a real presence. In Germany, the word Wedel is known as a city near Hamburg – we want people to associate it with chocolate and sweets instead.

Q: How do you approach partnerships?

We are cooperating with brands from other industries to create shared products. Most are food-related, but some have been genuinely outside the box. We partnered with OnlyBio, a Polish cosmetics brand, to create body and hair care products, as well as colour cosmetics with a chocolate scent. We collaborated with Gatta, a very successful Polish hosiery brand, to produce stockings in chocolate tones and with a chocolate fragrance. 

We had a real conversation about whether we were actually going to launch those. The campaign was filmed in the museum, and it was a significant success. The point is that people encounter E.Wedel not only in a supermarket aisle.

Q: How do you approach innovation?

We have three operating principles that we communicate to every employee: be innovative, be fast, be productive. Innovation comes first. We actively encourage people not to be afraid of failure, because the risk profile of innovation is inherently higher than doing nothing new. We have built programmes to create an environment where people feel safe to generate ideas across every function. Innovation is not only for the R&D team.

The gap is usually a competence issue – people know they want to innovate but do not know how. That comes down to managerial skill and organisational culture. Innovation does not happen by declaration; it requires space, trust and clear priorities.

Q: What opportunities exist for German partners, retailers and tech firms?

There are several clear areas of opportunity. The most immediate one is the German market itself. We sell to the Polish diaspora in Germany – around one to two million consumers who are looking for Polish brands and familiar products. Our bestsellers internationally include our dark chocolate ranges and Ptasie Mleczko, a unique product that does not have a direct equivalent elsewhere. We are also in REWE and working with German distributors to systematically build a broader retail presence.

Beyond retail, we are also actively looking for technology partners. We are implementing AI and automation solutions across the business and are open to working with German technology providers in these areas. Our production equipment has historically come largely from Germany, and we see strong potential for German technology to remain an important part of our future investments, including the development of a new factory.

Q: Why is now the moment for investors to consider the Polish market?

Poland today is a completely different country from what it was 15 or 20 years ago. The transformation that began in the early 1990s was truly extraordinary. At that time, there was no financial capital, limited intellectual capital and universities were only beginning to teach business.

What has happened since is remarkable. Poland has become a $1 trillion economy and joined the G20. At the same time, a new generation of globally competitive companies has emerged.

Q: What is the long-term ambition for E.Wedel? 

The five-year plan centres on doubling turnover, building our international presence in priority regions, launching the second factory and further developing the E.Wedel Universe across product, experience and partnership dimensions.

The ten-year vision is broader. We want to be a company that matters not only by the scale of our revenues, but by the impact we have on people, on the environment and on the conversation that business has with society and with policymakers.

For companies like E.Wedel, the opportunity is to grow internationally while remaining grounded in what has always defined this brand: quality, craftsmanship, a sense of surprise and a genuine connection with the people we serve.