Selling into Poland through distributors

How the market buys

Polish public purchasing is spread across central government, the regions, counties and municipalities, and many public hospitals, universities and utilities that each buy for their own needs. Most of it runs through one national platform.

e-Zamówienia is operated by the Public Procurement Office (Urząd Zamówień Publicznych, UZP) in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Affairs. It provides its electronic procurement services free of charge, and anyone can browse the procedures and contests run on it without logging in. The Biuletyn Zamówień Publicznych (BZP), the electronic bulletin that the President of UZP publishes under the Public Procurement Law, is reached through the same platform. Contracting authorities place their notices for procedures below the EU thresholds in the BZP, and public contracting authorities must also publish there, within 30 days of adopting their budget, a plan of the procedures they expect to run during the year. Those plans show early what a hospital or a city intends to buy.

Procedures are conducted in Polish; the law lets a buyer accept documents in another language only in justified cases. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 99% of the winners in the 15,852 notices from buyers in Poland were companies registered in the country (96% across the 30 EU and EEA countries); those local winners include distributors and dealers as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries — see our methodology. A foreign manufacturer enters by being listed with them.

Lawful first contact

Poland is strict on e-mail, and the rule changed recently. The Electronic Communications Law (Prawo komunikacji elektronicznej, PKE) took over the subject when it came into force in November 2024, and its implementing act repealed the old ban in article 10 of the Act on Providing Services by Electronic Means. Article 398 PKE now prohibits using telecommunications terminal equipment — in particular through interpersonal communication services, the category that covers e-mail — to send commercial information, including direct marketing, to a subscriber or end user "unless they have previously consented to it".

The protection is not limited to consumers. The law defines an end user as any entity that uses a publicly available electronic communications service for its own needs, which includes a distribution company. Consent can be given by the recipient providing an e-mail address for that purpose. Sending without consent is an act of unfair competition under article 398(4), and article 448 makes it a petty offence punishable by a fine, prosecuted at the request of the injured party. Separately, the President of UKE, the Office of Electronic Communications, can fine a sender that fails to obtain the consent article 398 requires, up to 3% of its previous year's revenue or PLN 1,000,000, whichever is higher (article 446(5)).

A first e-mail to a Polish distributor you have never dealt with therefore has no lawful basis. What works: a short letter by post to the management board, with a one-page product sheet in Polish and a clear reason why your range fits what the distributor already sells; the sector's trade fair; an introduction through an association, a chamber of commerce or an existing customer; and a fast, complete reply to any enquiry that comes to you. Once the distributor has written to you or agreed to hear from you, e-mail is fine.

What local distributors expect

Before Polish distributors take on a new range they usually ask for:

• Polish-language documentation: technical sheets, instructions, declarations and price lists ready for a Polish-language bid.
• Conformity evidence for the category — CE marking, declarations of conformity, test reports — that a buyer's committee can check against the specification.
• A price structure that leaves the distributor a margin after a competitive tender, with clear project pricing and a position on price changes over a multi-year contract.
• Reliable logistics: stock or short lead times, delivery across the country, and after-sales service or spare parts available locally.
• A clear commercial framework: territory, exclusivity and who handles which accounts.
• References, ideally from public buyers in your home market, and samples for evaluation.

The first order is often tied to one tender; the relationship widens once the product has won and been delivered.

How to enter, step by step

1. Read the record for your categories. Choose the CPV codes that describe your range and look at Polish contract award notices on TED for the larger contracts, and at the BZP on e-Zamówienia for procedures from PLN 170,000 excluding VAT up to the EU thresholds; neither needs a login. Note which distributors and dealers win repeatedly, and in which regions.
2. Read the buyers' annual plans. Public finance sector bodies and other state units (art. 23 with art. 4 points 1 and 2 Pzp) — ministries, regions, municipalities, public universities, public hospitals that are not companies — must publish a plan of the procedures they expect to run during the year, in the BZP and on their own website, within 30 days of adopting their budget or financial plan. It shows early what a hospital or a city intends to buy, and when.
3. Check whether your category is bought centrally. Article 47 of the Public Procurement Law lets the Prime Minister designate a central purchasing body and instruct government-administration buyers to buy certain kinds of contracts from it or under its framework agreements. If your category is covered, the suppliers on those agreements are the companies to approach.
4. Prepare Polish-language documentation. Technical sheets, instructions, declarations and price lists, ready to go into a bid that is conducted in Polish.
5. Assemble conformity evidence and references. CE marking, declarations of conformity and test reports that a buyer's committee can check against the specification, with references, ideally from public buyers in your home market, and samples for evaluation.
6. Make the first contact without a cold e-mail. Send a short letter by post to the management board with a one-page product sheet in Polish and a clear reason why your range fits; meet at the sector's trade fair; or ask an association, a chamber of commerce or an existing customer for an introduction. Switch to e-mail once the distributor has written to you or agreed to hear from you.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring a price structure that leaves the distributor a margin after a competitive tender, project pricing and a position on price changes over a multi-year contract, together with territory, exclusivity, account ownership, lead times and after-sales service.
8. Start with one tender. The first order is often tied to a single procedure; once the product has won and been delivered, use the next award notices to widen the relationship.

Where the evidence comes from

Above the EU thresholds — EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public authorities from 1 January 2026 — Polish buyers must publish contract award notices, and those notices appear on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. Each notice names the winning company and carries CPV codes, so the distributors that repeatedly win, for example, hospital furniture or laboratory equipment contracts across Polish regions can be identified from the public record. Notices for smaller procedures are published nationally in the BZP.

Cresques reads the award notices for the CPV categories you choose and shows who already sells that category in Poland. It does not help you bid for the contracts; the notices are evidence of who the buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.