Business development between Britain and Central & Eastern Europe.
Helping defence, technology and industrial companies identify opportunities, build partnerships and develop business across the UK and CEE markets.
Who I work with
Four kinds of organisation, moving in two directions along the same corridor.
UK → CEE
British firms entering the region
Defence, technology and industrial companies that can see the opportunity but do not know the buyers, the programmes or the partners.
CEE → UK
CEE firms entering the UK and NATO ecosystems
Manufacturers and technology companies seeking British customers and a route into wider European supply.
Both ways
Defence & dual-use companies
Firms whose route to market runs through programmes, primes and consortia rather than straightforward commercial sales.
Both ways
SMEs seeking partners
Companies that need a manufacturing, distribution or teaming partner in the other market, and evidence about which one to pick.
Capabilities
Market Development
- Market mapping
- Opportunity identification
- Competitor and ecosystem research
- Market-entry support
Partnership Development
- Partner identification
- Introductions
- Distributor and supplier searches
- Strategic partnerships
- Teaming opportunities
Business Development
- Target account research
- Stakeholder mapping
- Outreach
- Meeting generation
- Opportunity qualification
UK ↔ CEE Bridge
- Local representation
- Relationship development
- Cultural and commercial navigation
- Trade show and conference representation
When I can help
You’re a British company looking east
You know there is an opportunity somewhere in the region but don’t know the market, the buyers or the potential partners — and the cost of finding out slowly is a year you don’t get back.
You’re a CEE company looking toward the UK
You need commercial introductions, market intelligence or someone who can represent you credibly to British organisations.
You’re attending a regional defence event — ie MSPO
You want someone identifying targets before you land, arranging the conversations while you’re there, and following the opportunities after everyone has gone home.
You’re looking for a local partner
You need someone to map the ecosystem, screen partner candidates, and help open the doors that matter.
Regional market development without hiring a full-time country manager.
A physical presence in the region, British commercial instinct, relationship focused and able to do leg work.
British, regionally based
Resident in Poland and working across Central & Eastern Europe, combined with an understanding of how British organisations actually make decisions.
Military and commercial background
Able to hold a conversation with a defence organisation while still thinking commercially about where the revenue comes from.
Operator, not just adviser
I research, prospect, make the introductions, attend the meetings and follow the opportunity through. The work is the deliverable.
Independent
Flexible enough for SMEs that cannot yet justify a country manager or a full business development team.
Background
Enough to establish the proposition, not to become it.
- Royal Navy
- Former commissioned officer.
- Cambridge University
- Natural Sciences. Foci: commercialisation of technology, genetics, pharmacology, material sciences.
- Commercial
- Sales, cybersecurity, technology and startup work.
- Region
- Based in Poznań, working in English. Polish studies student.
Sample Engagements
Understanding your market. Build a pipeline. Develop relationships with named partners.
Market Entry Sprint
Fractional Business Development
Partner & Industrial Matchmaking
Give me a market, a target or a problem.
Tell me what you sell, who buys it today, and what you’re looking to achieve next.
Capabilities
Four areas of work across the UK–CEE corridor.
Market Development
- Market mapping
- Opportunity identification
- Competitor and ecosystem research
- Market-entry support
- Programme and procurement route analysis
Partnership Development
- Partner identification
- Introductions
- Distributor and supplier searches
- Strategic partnerships
- Teaming opportunities
- Registry and ownership verification
Business Development
- Target account research
- Stakeholder mapping
- Outreach
- Meeting generation
- Opportunity qualification
- Pipeline reporting
UK ↔ CEE Bridge
- Local representation
- Relationship development
- Cultural and commercial navigation
- Trade show and conference representation
- HQ visit coordination
Capabilities are delivered through three core desired outcomes. Understand your market. Build a pipeline. Develop relationships with named partners.
Where the line is
Introductions, not brokerage. I identify, qualify and introduce partners, and I represent companies commercially. I do not trade goods, hold stock, or act as an agent in regulated transactions. Where an engagement touches a controlled sector, that boundary is written into the agreement before work begins.
Which of these do you actually need?
Describe the situation and I will tell you which capability applies — or that none of them do.
Markets and counterparties
The corridor runs in both directions between Britain and Central & Eastern Europe. What travels each way is different, and so is the work.
Coverage
Poland is the core focus market and my operating base — it is the largest defence and industrial economy in the region, and the one I know first-hand. Where connections exist, I offer further support in adjacent Central & Eastern European markets.
Coverage outside Poland is built engagement by engagement. I will scope and communicate the additional groundwork ahead of any engagement.
On registry checks. Counterparties are first-pass verified against national company registers before introduction — KRS and REGON in Poland. Equivalent registers are checked in other jurisdictions.
Who I work with
UK → CEE
British firms entering the region
Defence, technology and industrial companies that can see the opportunity but do not know the buyers, the programmes or the partners.
CEE → UK
CEE firms entering the UK and NATO ecosystems
Manufacturers and technology companies seeking British customers and a route into wider European supply.
Both ways
Defence & dual-use companies
Firms whose route to market runs through programmes, primes and consortia rather than straightforward commercial sales.
Both ways
SMEs seeking partners
Companies that need a manufacturing, distribution or teaming partner in the other market, and evidence about which one to pick.
When to bring me in
You’re a British company looking east
You know there is an opportunity but don’t know the market, the buyers or the potential partners — and the cost of finding out slowly is a year you don’t get back.
You’re a CEE company looking toward the UK
You need commercial introductions, market intelligence or someone who can represent you credibly to British organisations.
You’re attending a regional defence event — ie MSPO
You want someone identifying targets before you land, arranging the conversations while you’re there, and following the opportunities after everyone has gone home.
You’re looking for a local partner
You need someone to map the ecosystem, screen partner candidates, and help open the doors that matter.
You have an opportunity and no one to work it
A live enquiry, an inbound approach or a first order arrived from the region, and nobody internally has the time or the language to take it further.
Geography
Based in Poznań, Wielkopolska — western Poland, on the Berlin–Warsaw corridor. Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdańsk and Berlin are reachable within three hours; most of Poland is a day trip, which means meetings happen in person rather than on a call. The rest of the region’s capitals are a short flight.
UK coverage is by travel and existing relationships rather than a second office. Where a British engagement needs regular physical presence, that is scoped explicitly rather than implied.
Which side of the corridor are you on?
Tell me the market you are trying to reach and what you would need to see to commit to it.
James Bush
British. Based in Poznań. Supporting European innovation, tech & defence ecosystems.
Background
- Royal Navy
- Former commissioned officer.
- Cambridge University
- Natural Sciences. Foci: commercialisation of technology, genetics, pharmacology, material sciences.
- Commercial
- Sales, cybersecurity, technology and startup work.
- Region
- Based in Poznań, working in English. Polish studies student.
Unique positioning
Most people who can navigate Central & Eastern Europe commercially are from the region, and most people who understand how a British board reaches a decision are in Britain. The useful position is the one in between: physically present in the region, but able to write a paper a UK commercial director will actually act on.
Beyond immediate application to defence commerce, my military background is the basis of my experience in large organisation work. I have supported organisations from sole traders through to government scale.
A Cambridge sciences degree and experience in tech sales mean I can translate highly technical products for commercial audiences — and as a contest-winning Toastmasters speaker, present them.
Working style
- Hybrid online / In person — meetings in the room, physically or online as required. In English as standard
- Verified — counterparties checked against national company registers before they reach you
- Ownership mentality — I work like an owner. Redistributing time and focusing on the highest-ROI opportunities early.
- Bounded — introductions and representation, never brokerage in regulated transactions
- Candid feedback — I report on challenges early. If the market isn’t working, I suggest alternative courses of action.
Selected experience
Representative projects and client references will be published here as engagements complete.
Trusted & trained by
Worth a conversation?
Thirty minutes is usually enough to establish whether there is something here for you.
Partner with me
Not every useful conversation starts with an engagement. If you are looking for something — reach out.
Who gets in touch
Companies
Looking for business development representation in Central & Eastern Europe or the UK.
Consultancies
Looking for local research or delivery capability on the ground in the region.
Prime contractors
Looking for regional suppliers, SMEs or technology partners for a programme or bid.
CEE companies
Looking for British customers, partners or a route into allied supply chains.
Investors
Looking for commercial intelligence on a market, a sector or a specific company.
What to send
A paragraph is enough. What you sell or are looking for, which market, and what you would need to see to move forward.
On confidentiality. Early conversations are treated as confidential by default. Where a search or a market assessment requires it, an NDA is signed before anything substantive is discussed.
Tell me what you’re looking for.
One paragraph on what you need and which market. I reply to everything that is specific.
Insights
The Northolt Treaty: what British SMEs should actually do next
Published · AnalysisThe UK–Poland defence treaty opened fourteen workstreams and named no companies, figures or contracting route. What the five industrial lines are, and the three things worth doing in the next ninety days.
Poland’s defence build-out: where a British supplier actually fits
Published · Market analysisClose to 5% of GDP in 2026, and a consistent requirement for technology transfer and local manufacturing. Who holds the industrial capacity, where requirements concentrate, and the three doors that are actually open.
The other Polish story: nearshoring, EU money and the end of cheap
Published · Market analysis€59 billion of recovery funding, the strongest growth in the EU, and a market deliberately exiting cost competition. What that changes for British industrial and technology firms.
Entering the Polish Defence Market: A Guide for British SMEs
In preparationProgrammes, procurement routes, offset expectations and the practical sequence a smaller British firm should follow.
Ten CEE Defence Companies UK Firms Should Know
In preparationWho they are, what they build, what they need from abroad, and where a British supplier plausibly fits.
Understanding Poland’s Defence Procurement Ecosystem
In preparationHow a requirement becomes a contract, who holds the pen at each stage, and where foreign firms most often stall.
MSPO: Commercial Opportunities for British SMEs
In preparationWhat the show is actually good for, how to prepare a target list, and what to do in the four weeks afterwards.
The Eastern Flank: Where Commercial Opportunities Emerge
In preparationReading the UK–CEE defence relationship for the commercial openings it creates underneath.
CEE Defence Manufacturing Capability Map
In preparationCapability by country and category — a reference document rather than an article.
Which of these would you read?
If one of these would be useful to you or your team, say so — it moves up the queue, and I will send it to you first.
Capability statement
Written to be circulated internally — the version someone forwards to their commercial director after meeting me at a trade show.
James Bush
Independent UK ↔ CEE Business Development
contact@jamesbush.eu
Core capabilities
- Market mapping and opportunity identification
- Partner, distributor and supplier search
- Target account and stakeholder research
- Meeting generation and opportunity qualification
- Local commercial representation
- Trade show and conference representation
- Teaming and consortium partner identification
Markets served
- Defence and dual-use
- Technology and cybersecurity
- Industrial and manufacturing
- British firms entering Central & Eastern Europe
- CEE firms entering the UK and NATO ecosystems
Geographic coverage
Based in Poznań, Poland — the home market and operating base. Work extends across Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic states. United Kingdom by travel and established relationships. Working languages English and Polish.
Relevant background
- Royal Navy — former commissioned officer
- University of Cambridge — Natural Sciences
- Commercial — sales, cybersecurity, technology, startups
- Resident in Poland
Differentiators
- British commercial instinct with a physical presence in the region
- Defence-literate and commercially driven
- Operator, not adviser — research, outreach and meetings delivered directly
- Independent and flexible for SMEs below country-manager scale
- Counterparties verified against national company registers before introduction
Engagement models
- Market Entry Sprint — 30 days to a target list, partner map and 90-day plan
- Fractional Business Development — monthly in-market commercial presence
- Partner & Industrial Matchmaking — longlist to written recommendation
- Event and in-country representation
Representative projects
To be completed. Project summaries and references will be added as engagements conclude and naming permission is granted.
Scope boundary
Partner identification, qualification, introduction and commercial representation. Not a broker or agent: no trading of goods, no stock held, no agency in regulated transactions. Sector-specific boundaries are agreed in writing before work begins.
Need this as a file?
Use the print button above and choose “Save as PDF”, or email me and I will send the current version straight over.
Market Entry Sprint
In 30 days, I’ll tell you where the real opportunities are, who matters, and what you should do next.
What it is
A finite, four-week piece of work that replaces guesswork with a map. I establish who buys what you sell, which competitors already hold that ground, how the money actually reaches a supplier, and which fifteen to thirty people decide.
It is deliberately short and deliberately low-risk. You commit to a month, not a headcount, and you finish with a document your board can act on — or credibly decline to act on.
What you receive
- Target-account list — ranked, with the reason each name is on it
- Local partner map — distributors, integrators and manufacturers who could carry you
- Competitor landscape — who is already there, at what price, through which channel
- Procurement & programme routes — how a company like yours actually gets bought
- 15–30 named decision-makers — role, seniority, and how to reach them
- Selected introductions — warm, made during the sprint, not promised for later
- 90-day action plan — sequenced, with an owner against each step
How the month runs
- Week 1Briefing & scopingHalf a day with your commercial lead. What you sell, what you will not compromise on, what a good year would look like.
- Weeks 1–2Desk mappingRegistry, tender and trade-data work. The longlist is built and cut here, before anyone is contacted.
- Weeks 2–3In-country conversationsCalls and meetings with buyers, partners and people who know the sector. This is where a desk-research answer becomes a real one.
- Week 4Report & action planWritten document, then a two-hour session to walk your team through it and agree the next 90 days.
Who it suits
A defence, technology or industrial SME that keeps hearing a market is one it should be in, has no one internally who can prove or disprove that, and does not want to spend a year finding out.
It is not a research report. Half the value is the introductions made while the work is live. If the sprint ends and the market looks wrong for you, that is a legitimate outcome and I will write it plainly.
Start with a conversation
Tell me what you sell and who buys it today. Thirty minutes is usually enough to know whether a sprint is worth running.
Fractional Business Development
A commercial presence in-market, without hiring a full-time country manager.
What it is
I become your commercial presence on a monthly basis. Meetings are arranged and attended, opportunities are qualified, the CRM stays current, prospects get followed up, partners get visited, and your management receives a written market report on a fixed rhythm.
To a local buyer, there is a person in-country who answers the phone, speaks the language, and can be in their office on Thursday. To you, there is no employment contract, no relocation, no office, and no twelve-month commitment before you see whether the market responds.
What I do each month
- Arrange and hold meetings — with buyers, partners and specifiers, in person where it matters
- Qualify opportunities — budget, authority, timing and realistic route to purchase
- Maintain your CRM — in your system, to your fields, so the record survives me
- Follow up relentlessly — the part most market-entry efforts quietly drop
- Visit partners — distributors and integrators need attention, not an onboarding email
- Coordinate HQ visits — agenda, logistics, interpretation, briefing pack, follow-up
- Represent you at events — industry gatherings, trade fairs and sector conferences
- Report to management — one written market report, on a schedule you can plan around
The operating rhythm
| Weekly | Pipeline update and a short written market note — what moved, what stalled, what I need from you. |
|---|---|
| Monthly | Management call against the agreed targets, plus a full written report for the board pack. |
| Quarterly | Target reset. We keep what is working, kill what is not, and re-point the effort. |
| As needed | Partner visits, customer site visits, HQ delegations, and event representation. |
Who it suits
A company with genuine interest in the market — often after a sprint, an inbound enquiry, or a first order that arrived unprompted — but nothing close to the volume that justifies a local hire yet.
It also suits firms that have tried a distributor and found the pipeline went quiet: someone has to work the market, and a distributor works their own.
What I need from you. One named person at HQ who can answer a question within two working days, and honest pricing. Everything else I can build. Without those two, no amount of local presence produces a deal.
A presence in-market from next month
Most retainers begin after a short scoping call and a first month of clear, agreed targets.
Partner & Industrial Matchmaking
We identified twelve possible partners, interviewed six, introduced you to three, and recommend two.
What it is
A structured search for the company you need on your side — and, just as importantly, evidence about the ones you should walk away from. Central & Eastern Europe has deep industrial capacity and a crowded middle market; the difficulty is never finding names, it is knowing which of them can actually deliver at your volume and standard.
Every candidate is checked against public registry records before it reaches you: ownership and control, filed accounts, registered activity, and whether the person in the meeting can sign.
Partners I look for
- Manufacturing partners — contract production and localisation of assembly
- Distributors — with the sector coverage and the sales bench to use it
- Systems integrators — where your product has to land inside something larger
- Service & MRO partners — in-country support, maintenance and spares
- Subcontractors — specific capability, capacity and certification
- Consortium partners — where a bid requires a local entity alongside you
How the funnel narrows
Indicative shape of a typical search, not a record of past work. The count that matters is the last one — you should finish holding a short, defensible recommendation, not a spreadsheet of companies you now have to assess yourself.
How the search runs
- Stage 1Define the partnerCapability, capacity, certification, geography, and the commercial model you can actually live with.
- Stage 2Build and screen the longlistRegistry, sector and supply-chain sources. Ownership, accounts and activity codes checked before contact.
- Stage 3Interview the shortlistStructured conversations in the local language. Capacity, current customers, appetite, and who signs.
- Stage 4Introduce and supportWarm introductions, meetings arranged and attended, plus follow-up on both sides.
- Stage 5Recommend in writingA short document: who to proceed with, on what basis, and what to watch in each.
Who it suits
Firms that need localisation, a manufacturing footprint, or a credible local name beside theirs — whether to serve customers who insist on local content, to shorten a supply chain, or to qualify for work that a foreign entity cannot bid alone.
An important distinction. I find and qualify partners. I am not a broker or an agent: I do not trade goods, hold stock, negotiate on your behalf, or take a position in the transaction. Where an engagement touches a regulated sector, that boundary is written into the agreement before work begins.
Looking for a partner?
Describe the capability you need. If it exists in the region, I will tell you roughly where and how deep the field is before you commit to anything.
The Northolt Treaty: what British SMEs should actually do next
On 27 May 2026 the UK and Poland signed a Security and Defence Partnership Treaty. It opens fourteen workstreams and names no companies, no figures and no contracting route. That gap is the opportunity — and the risk.
What was signed
Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Tusk signed the treaty on 27 May 2026. It is named for RAF Northolt, the station Polish pilots flew from in 1940 and where their memorial still stands — a deliberate piece of symbolism that tells you the relationship is being framed as historic rather than transactional.
It is the third such bilateral treaty Britain has signed with a major European ally inside a year, following the Northwood Declaration with France and the Kensington Treaty with Germany, both in July 2025. Poland was the obvious third: it spends more of its GDP on defence than any other NATO member and sits on the alliance’s eastern flank.
The parts with industrial consequences
Fourteen workstreams were announced. Most are governmental — sanctions coordination, migration, diplomatic exchanges. Five carry real industrial weight:
- Next-generation missiles — joint European leadership across air-to-air, ground-based air defence and land domains
- Medium-range air defence — co-production of a next-generation medium-range air defence missile, design through manufacture
- Large-calibre ammunition — expanding production capacity and capability through industry collaboration
- Counter-drone, EW and missile defence — a strategic land partnership plus a dedicated drone threat task force
- Maritime — North Sea and Baltic cooperation, including joint training for next-generation frigate crews
Quantum research, space, hydrogen and carbon capture also appear. For dual-use technology firms those are worth watching, though they sit further from contract than the missile and ammunition lines.
What the treaty does not say
This is the part most coverage skipped. The published documents contain no budget figures, no delivery timelines, no named companies and no procurement mechanism. There is no framework to join, no portal to register on, and no announced route by which a supplier becomes part of any of it.
That is normal for a treaty at this stage and it is not a criticism. But it means anyone telling you there is a pipeline to bid into today is selling you something. The capability domains are set; the contracting is not.
The practical read. Treaties of this kind convert into industrial activity through the primes and the national agencies, not through the treaty text. The commercial question is not “how do I bid on the Northolt Treaty” — there is nothing to bid on. It is “which Polish and British organisations will be asked to deliver these five capability areas, and am I known to them before the requirement is written?”
Three things worth doing in the next ninety days
- OneMap to a capability line, not to the treatyDecide which of the five industrial workstreams you could credibly contribute to, and be specific about the sub-system or service. “We do air defence” is not a position. “We make the seeker cooling assembly and hold this qualification” is.
- TwoGet known to the Polish industrial base nowCo-production means a Polish partner or a Polish entity in most structures. The firms who will be asked to deliver are identifiable today, and their partner slots fill before requirements are public. This is the window where an introduction costs nothing and later costs a competitive process.
- ThreeBe in the room at MSPO and its equivalentsPoland’s defence exhibition calendar is where the industrial relationships around this treaty will actually form over the next two years. Attending without a target list is tourism; going with named companies and pre-arranged meetings is business development.
The honest caveat
Bilateral defence treaties have a long history of announcing more than they deliver. Some of these fourteen workstreams will produce contracts; several will quietly not. Nothing here justifies committing serious capital to the Polish market on its own.
What it does justify is cheap positioning: knowing who matters, being known to them, and being ready if and when a requirement appears. That is a modest amount of work, and it is worth considerably more done now than done after an announcement.
Sources
- Treaty text and announcement — GOV.UK
- The projects the UK and Poland will deliver together — GOV.UK
- Poland and UK sign treaty deepening defence and security ties — Notes From Poland
- What it means for the supply chain — DPRTE
Which of these five lines is yours?
If one of the industrial workstreams maps to what you build, the useful next step is a target list of the Polish organisations who will deliver it. That is a short piece of work.
Poland’s defence build-out: where a British supplier actually fits
Poland will spend close to 5% of GDP on defence in 2026 — the highest share in NATO. The number is not the story. How that money is required to be spent is.
The scale, briefly
Poland was the world’s thirteenth-largest defence spender in 2024 at around US$38 billion, a 44% increase on 2023. In 2025 the figure was PLN 166.2 billion, roughly 4.3% of GDP. The 2026 budget earmarks PLN 200 billion — close to 4.8% of GDP, and the highest proportion in the alliance.
Over the decade to 2035 the projected total is on the order of PLN 1.9 trillion. For context, that is a sustained programme rather than a spike, and it is being written into budgets while most of Western Europe is still arguing about 2%.
The part most British firms get wrong
The instinct is to treat Poland as an export market: find the buyer, quote, ship. That is not how this money moves. Poland is explicitly buying industrial capability, not just equipment — the consistent requirement across recent major programmes is technology transfer, local manufacturing and know-how landing on Polish soil.
The pattern is visible in the deals already signed. The K2PL tank programme with Hyundai Rotem and the K9 howitzer cooperation with Hanwha Aerospace are structured as technology-transfer partnerships. Abrams tanks came through a US contract worth around €4.66 billion, but sixty-one were manufactured in Gliwice under transfer to Polish industry, with a second contract following in August 2025. Rheinmetall is establishing production capacity in the country. PGZ is working with Estonia’s Frankenburg Technologies to manufacture ultra-short-range air defence systems in Poland.
Read those together and the rule is clear: you do not sell to Poland, you build in Poland. A British SME that arrives with a product and no localisation answer is competing badly against one that arrives with a Polish manufacturing partner already identified.
Who actually holds the industrial capacity
- PGZ (Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa) — the state armaments group: roughly 60 subsidiary companies, around half of all sector revenue, and 2025 revenue near PLN 20 billion. Most large programmes touch it somewhere.
- WB Group — the private-sector leader, strongest in unmanned systems and loitering munitions, with 2025 revenue around PLN 4.3–4.8 billion. Faster moving and more commercially minded than the state group.
- The subsidiary layer — the operational reality is that PGZ is sixty companies, not one. The relevant counterparty is usually a specific subsidiary with a specific capability, not the group centre.
Where the requirements are concentrated
- Layered air defence — long and medium range combined; the single most consistent priority
- Counter-drone — driven by direct experience of airspace incursion, not doctrine
- Ammunition self-sufficiency — large-calibre capacity is a stated national objective, not a procurement line
- Land forces modernisation — armour, artillery and the supporting industrial base
- East Shield (Tarcza Wschód) — around PLN 10 billion fortifying the eastern border, with AI surveillance and dual-use infrastructure. The most accessible line for non-traditional suppliers.
- Naval rebuild and air power — longer horizon, larger integrators, harder for an SME to enter cold
East Shield deserves a second look. Sensing, surveillance, autonomy, power, materials and construction technology all sit inside it, and much of that is dual-use. A firm with no defence track record can often route in here more realistically than through a weapons programme.
The three doors that are actually open
- OneMSPO, KielceThe International Defence Industry Exhibition, 8–11 September 2026. This is where the Polish industrial base is physically assembled once a year. Attending without a target list is tourism; going with named subsidiaries and pre-booked meetings is business development.
- TwoPAIHThe Polish Investment and Trade Agency offers location consulting, partner identification and government facilitation, and appointed a dedicated Plenipotentiary for Defence Affairs in 2025. It is free, official, and under-used by British firms.
- ThreeThe Industrial Cooperation PortalThe Ministry of National Defence operates a platform for submitting cooperation proposals directly. It is not a tender portal and will not produce a contract on its own, but it is a legitimate front door and it creates a record.
What I would not tell you
That this is easy money. Poland’s procurement is politically directed, timelines move, and a domestic-first instinct runs through the system for good reasons. Several of the largest programmes are already committed to Korean and American partners for a decade.
The realistic British opportunity is rarely the platform. It is the sub-system, the component, the qualification, the service and the software that a Polish prime or a PGZ subsidiary needs and does not currently make. That is a smaller prize per contract and a far higher probability of winning one.
Sources
- Poland’s Defence and Security Sector market report — New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
- Poland plans record defence spending of 4.8% of GDP in 2026 budget — Notes From Poland
- Poland’s Defense Spending Poised to Skyrocket — National Defense Magazine
- Poland Boosts Domestic Defence Production as Army Expands — Modern Diplomacy
Figures are as published at the time of writing and are drawn from budget plans rather than outturn. Polish defence budgets have been revised upward repeatedly since 2022; treat every number here as a floor rather than a forecast.
Which PGZ subsidiary should you actually be talking to?
That is a specific, answerable question, and the answer is usually two or three companies rather than sixty.
The other Polish story: nearshoring, EU money and the end of cheap
Defence takes the headlines. The larger and more accessible opportunity for most British firms is the industrial and technology economy underneath it — and the terms of entry there are changing.
The macro position
Poland is forecast to grow around 3.4–3.5% in 2026 — the strongest among EU economies — with inflation falling below 4%. Growth is being driven by domestic consumption, government spending and EU structural funds arriving at once.
The single largest input is the National Recovery Plan (KPO), worth roughly €59 billion in grants and loans, with disbursement accelerating through 2025 and 2026. That money lands in infrastructure, energy transition, digitalisation and industrial modernisation — which is to say, in procurement.
Nearshoring is real, and it has a specific shape
Supply chains moving closer to European end markets favour Poland for unglamorous reasons: location, EU membership, and an industrial base that already exists. The effect is concentrated in manufacturing and technology services rather than spread evenly.
On the services side, IT, shared service centres and global business services have grown fast, with Warsaw, Kraków and Wrocław functioning as the primary hubs. Software development outsourcing alone is projected to reach around US$3.84 billion in revenue by the end of 2026.
On the industrial side, Germany matters more than any other factor. It remains Poland’s largest trading partner, and a German recovery translates fairly directly into orders for Polish industrial, automotive and components manufacturers. If you are assessing Polish industrial demand, you are partly assessing German demand.
Where the industrial strength sits
- Battery manufacturing — among the world’s leading producers, with the supply chain that implies
- Automotive and components — deeply integrated into German OEM chains
- Semiconductors — an active policy priority rather than an established position
- Metalworking and construction — broad, competitive, and the usual home for contract manufacturing
- IT, SSC and GBS — the largest single absorber of graduate engineering talent
The shift that changes who wins
Poland is deliberately moving off cost-based competition. The stated direction is innovation, automation, digitalisation and technologically advanced products — because the cost advantage is eroding and the demographics make it unsustainable.
For a British firm this cuts both ways. If your proposition to Poland is “we are cheaper”, you have arrived a decade late and you are competing with a market that is itself exiting that position. If your proposition is automation, specialist engineering, software, materials or process technology that raises Polish productivity, you are selling into the direction of travel and into money that is already allocated.
The constraint to plan around is people, not price. Demographic decline is repeatedly cited as the binding limit on Polish output. Anything that reduces headcount per unit of production — automation, robotics, process software — is arguing with the grain of the market rather than against it.
What to be cautious about
- Energy costs — a live competitiveness question for energy-intensive manufacturing
- Protectionism — rising trade barriers affect Polish exporters, and therefore Polish demand
- Geopolitical exposure — proximity to Ukraine shapes insurance, financing and board appetite regardless of commercial logic
- EU funding cliffs — KPO-driven demand is time-boxed; a pipeline built entirely on it has an expiry date
Three practical moves
- OneWork out whether your buyer is Polish or GermanA large share of Polish industrial demand is derived from German OEM chains. If that is true of your sector, the account plan and the timing follow German cycles, not Polish ones.
- TwoFollow the KPO allocation, not the headline€59 billion is not a market. The relevant question is which programmes inside it fund what you sell, and which entities are the contracting authorities for those programmes.
- ThreeUse PAIH before paying anyoneThe Polish Investment and Trade Agency provides location consulting, partner identification and government facilitation at no cost. It will not do your business development, but it is a legitimate and under-used starting point.
Sources
- Poland in Global Trade 2026 — Trade.gov.pl, Polish Investment and Trade Agency
- M&A in Poland 2026: Key Opportunities and Risks — Aventis Advisors
- Poland Market Outlook: Economy, Trade, Investment in 2026 — Valians International
- Why Poland Leads Europe’s IT Nearshoring Market — Itelence
Forecasts are as published at the time of writing. Several sources here are commercial advisory publications with their own market interest; the macro figures are consistent across them and with EU forecasts, but treat sector projections as directional rather than precise.
Is your buyer in Warsaw, or in Stuttgart?
For a lot of British industrial firms looking at Poland, answering that one question changes the entire market-entry plan.