The study, entitled The Luxury Goods Market in Poland: Luxury in Uncertain Times, was published by KPMG, a global consultancy, on Friday.
Poland’s market for luxury goods rose by almost 19 percent last year, reaching the highest-ever figure of PLN 37 billion (EUR 8.2 billion), according to the report.
This reflects the resilience of the global luxury market to the turbulence of the past three years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the global economic slowdown, KPMG experts said.
37,000 'very rich' Poles in 2021
Luxury goods cater mainly to the needs of people classified as “very rich,” which in Poland's case means gross annual earnings of more than PLN 1 million (EUR 220,000), the study said.
This income group grew by 4.8 percent in 2021, to 37,000 people, and their combined earnings that year totalled PLN 94 billion (EUR 21 billion), according to the report.
The largest number of “very rich” people lived in the central Mazowieckie region, at 8,560, followed by the western Wielkopolskie province, with 4,240, and the southern Silesia region, with 4,210, KPMG said.
Andrzej Marczak, a partner at KPMG Poland, said: “In uncertain times, more and more rich people are injecting their capital in the luxury goods market or are looking for investment opportunities.”
Premium and luxury cars, high-end clothing, expensive hotels
In 2022, as in previous years, premium and luxury cars accounted for the biggest chunk of Poland’s luxury market, KPMG said.
The premium-and-luxury cars segment was worth PLN 24.7 billion (EUR 5.4 billion) in 2022, a 5.1 percent increase in volume terms and a 20.5 percent rise in value compared with 2021, according to the report.
A total of 95,700 new premium cars were registered in Poland last year, along with 329 new luxury cars, KPMG reported.
Meanwhile, sales of luxury clothing and accessories in Poland rose by 9.9 percent in value terms, to a record PLN 3.2 billion (EUR 705 million) in 2022, according to the study.
Perfumes and cosmetics added up to PLN 1.2 billion (EUR 264.5 million) last year, a 7.7 percent increase compared with 2021, while the sales of watches and jewellery rose by 10.3 percent to PLN 540 million (EUR 119 million), KPMG said.
Meanwhile, luxury hotel-and-spa services were the fastest growing segment of Poland’s luxury market, rising by 45.6 percent last year to PLN 2.6 billion (EUR 573 million), the study found.
As of last year, there were 87 five-star hotels in Poland, including 16 in the historic southern city of Kraków, 14 in the capital Warsaw, and six in the southwestern city of Wrocław, KPMG said.
(pm/gs)
Source: KPMG, jpmorgan.com, wgospodarce.pl