Industry Reinvented
FROM TEXTILE MONOCULTURE TO TODAY'S BUSINESS POTENTIAL
In recent years, Łódź has made the effort of the transition from its traditional economy based on textile monoculture to a modern economy based on high-tech industries.
Between 1850 and 1900, Łódź observed a dynamic industrialisation and a twentyfold increase in population, a growth dynamic experienced in that time by no other city in Europe. Globally, only three urban areas had an ever more rapidly growing population: Los Angeles in the US and Yokohama in Japan.
The city actively builds its entrepreneurial ethos and is a place where everyone could come and work, regardless of their country of origin or religious beliefs.
The trade and the industrial development of the city was delayed by the World War I, and then stopped in its tracks by the World War II.
After 1945, Łódź is no longer a "city of four cultures", with no more citizens of German, Jewish or Russian descent.
The textile factories are nationalised and the city remains an important location for the textile industry in Poland.
The time of the transition from a state-controlled economy to market-driven capitalism is a difficult chapter in the history of Łódź. The changes led to a collapse of the textile industry in Łódź and to a economic crisis. In 1993, the unemployment rate reaches 21.3 percent.
The 1990s were also marked by the reconstitution of the free market in Poland and the entry of foreign investors. In Łódź their presence started by the construction of assembly centres performing the simplest tasks, to gradually evolve in more and more advanced operations, such as R&D and accounting centres or innovative manufacturing lines.
The economic situation is gradually improving. In 2012, the Integrated Development Strategy for Lodz 2020+ is adapted. The city attracts international investors from such sectors as: BPO/SSC, ITC, logistics, home appliances, biotechnology and innovative textile industry.
Łódź experiences a large-scale process of urban regeneration and of adapting the city’s old industrial tissue to the present times. Entire industrial buildings complexes or even whole districts, such as the New Centre of Łódź (Nowe Centrum Łodzi) are given a new life. Historical post-industrial red-brick interiors, transformed in modern co-working areas, hosts innovative and creative industries.
Łódź is experiencing a period of dynamic development. The city attracts international investors and offer good conditions for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises providing innovative products and services.
