Bydgoszcz Cable Factory (later known as Tele-Fonika Kable S.A.-Bydgoszcz branch) is a Polish company founded in 1920 that makes electrical cables that is based in the city of Bydgoszcz. It has been owned since 2003 by "Tele-Fonika Kable S.A." Corporate group, located in Myślenice. The plant is the oldest existing cable factory in Poland, producing up to 25,000 km of cables per year.
The Bydgoszcz plant is the leading facility of the Tele-Fonika Kable S.A. group. The latter is the largest producer of medium and high voltage power cables in Europe. By 2006, the station covered an area of and employed more than 600 workers. The plant's quality certificates are vouched in Poland and in many other countries: Germany, United Kingdom, United States, Finland, France, Canada and Russia.
Tele-Fonika Kable group is a member of the "International Cablemakers Federation-ICF". Cables produced by the Bydgoszcz Cable Factory have been laid, among others, at Heathrow Airport, in the Channel Tunnel, at the Wembley Stadium, in mines in Peru and Chile and at the Warsaw National Stadium. Tele-Fonika Kable group, Bydgoszcz Factory parent company, is the third electric cable manufacturer in Europe, at the head of 5 plants in Poland and 2 others abroad (Serbia, Ukraine).
Name changes 1920–1939 – "Kabel Polski" Spółka Akcyjna (Joint-stock company); 1939–1942 – "Hermann Göring Werke, Treuhandstelle Ost" (Trust Office East); 1942–1945 – " A.G. Wien", Kabelwerk – Bromberg; 1945–1948 – "Kabel Polski Spółka Akcyjna pod Zarządem Państwowym" (Under State Control); 1948–1959 – "Pomorskie Zakłady Wytwórcze Materiałów Elektrotechnicznych" (Pomeranian Electrotechnical Materials Manufacturing Plant) "im. gen. Karol Świerczewski" (once nationalized); 1959–1993 – "Bydgoska Fabryka Kabli im. gen. K. Świerczewskiego". From 1970 to 1975, it was part of the Cable Industry Combine "Polkabel"; 1993–1999 – "Bydgoska Fabryka Kabli S.A."; 1999–2003 – "Elektrim Kable Polskie S.A." – Bydgoszcz plant; Since 2003 – "Tele-Fonika Kable S.A." – Bydgoszcz plant.
History Interwar period The plant establishment is linked to the development of electrical engineering in the Second Polish Republic. Before 1920, very few workshops in Poland were producing electric cables and electric machines. Indeed, during this period of Prussian occupation, the market was dominated by the German industry.
In these conditions, the development of the Polish cable industry only took off in 1920: on the initiative of Polish capital investors, two factories were established simultaneously, in Warsaw and Bydgoszcz. During WWII, the Warsaw plant was entirely razed and never rebuilt. On October 12, 1920, on the initiative of the "Association of Commercial Companies" () in Poznań, the "Kabel Polski joint-stock company" () was established with a share capital of Mp.20 million. It was not the first factory from this industry in Bydgoszcz, as Stefan Daszewski and Rafał Kukliński, Polish emigrants in the USA, had set up earlier the same year the joint US-Polish company, AMPOL, producing incandescent light bulbs at 4 Sienkiewicza Street.
The official ceremony of the cornerstone laying took place on November 11, 1920. From 1924, the company was co-owned by the "Association of Commercial Companies" in Poznań and the Warsaw firm "Siła i świat" (Strength and Light), one of the largest enterprises in Poland at that time. By the start of WWII, many other cable production sites opened in Poland: initially in Warsaw and Ruda Pabianicka, then in Kraków (1927), Będzin (1927), Czechowice-Dziedzice (1928) and Ożarów Mazowiecki (1931). In 1938, cable factories were set up in Central Industrial District (Dwikozy, Lubartów) but could not be completed due to the outbreak the armed conflict.
The initial governance board was composed of 10 people and included Jan Maciaszek, then Mayor of Bydgoszcz. The first technical director was Stanisław Rolbieski, former deputy director of the "Deutsche Kabelwerke A.G." in Berlin before WWI. The plot for the construction of the plant was purchased from the company "Żegluga Bydgoska" (Bydgoszcz Shipping), equipped with a branch line connecting it to the near "Bydgoszcz East" railway station. In 1921, municipal construction counselor Köppen approved the design of the factory.
The construction works lasted from November 1920 to May 1922, performed by a local Bydgoszcz construction company: initially, two production buildings and one administrative and auxiliary edifice were erected, all made of brick with wooden roofs. In 1922, Stanisław Rolbieski purchased second-hand machines in Weimar Republic, which took a long way back to Bydgoszcz via Finland and the Free City of Danzig, due to the German–Polish customs war then in place. The manufactory had its own boiler room and a 300 HP steam engine connected to a DC generator. In 1929, the ensemble was also powered from the municipal power plant.
The factory was officially opened on June 4, 1923, with the five departments (Rubber, Telephone, Machine press, Tin, Wire drawing) and covered an initial surface of . On this very day, a formal reception was held in the Hotel "Pod Orlem" attended by 55 guests.
In 1923, for the first time in Poland the production of electrical cables started there. The raw materials were imported from abroad: basic copper from United States, Canada, Chile and Belgium; tin from Netherlands; natural silk from France; asbestos from United Kingdom; lead from Germany. Purer copper ("electrolytic copper" obtained by electrolysis) was purchased from Polish mills in Silesia.
As earlier as 1925, "Kabel Polski" had been producing a large panel of cables and wires, even shipbuilding and submarine communications cables. Regular customers were, among others, "Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna" in Warsaw, PKP, the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs and its branches directorates throughout Poland, the Railway Signals Factory and several power plants in Bydgoszcz, Ostrów Mazowiecka, Toruń or Poznań.
On February 22, 1927, a terrible fire almost completely burned down the facility: only the power plant, the boiler room and workshops survived. The extensive insurance policy contracted by "Kabel Polski" was able to cover the 1.5 million Złoty damages while enabling the funding of a modernization and a further expansion. The latter required purchasing new plots from "Żegluga Bydgoska", hence extending its area down to the Brda river. Within one year, a new hall designed by architect Bronisław Jankowski was added, comprising 2 gantry cranes and equipped with steam machines from the "F. Eberhardt company" located at "2 Berliner straße" (today's Swiętej Trojcy street). The facility then covered an area of and employed 400 people. "Kabel Polski" at that time was equipped with a copper wire draw bench and a chemical department, where natural rubber was transformed into a rubber tape for wire insulation. A separate unit dealt with insulation using fibrous materials such as paper, jute, cotton or silk. The plant had a testing laboratory checking and vouching the products.
In the 1930s, several new factory buildings were built, among others: a villa for the director and houses for specialists on the bank of the Brda river (1931); a high voltage test station (1931); a wire draw bench machine (1936); a jute welding plant (1936); a workshop for engineers. The plant had also its own quay on the Brda river which was used on occasion to receive imported copper wire rods ferried from Warsaw via the Vistula.
On April 18, 1930, a Voluntary Fire Brigade unit was established in the premises. Over the following years, the Fire Brigade conducted training exercises, took part in firefighting operations and secured numerous incidents, including outside the factory in the local community.
To allow further development, an agreement was concluded in 1927, with the joint stock company "Felten-Guilleaume A.G." from Vienna, which entered the Kabel Polski capital (15%) in exchange for technical supervision and licences. Under the new deal conditions, Germans were engaged in technical managerial positions. In 1928, a licence from Siemens & Halske in Berlin was acquired, for the production of intercity cables, telephone and loading coil for telegraphy. At the beginning of the 1930s, the shared capital was again increased by 5 million Złotys, following agreements with companies "Felten-Guilleaume" in Vienna and Budapest, and the "František Křižík's Electrotechnical Workshop" in Prague. In 1935, a license agreement for the production and sale of load coil cables was signed with the "International Stanford Electric Corporation" in New York City. The products were regularly awarded with quality awards, such as the 1927 gold medal at the Water Exhibition in Bydgoszcz, the 1928 "Northern Fair" of Vilnius or the 1929 "Polish General Exhibition" of Poznań.
In 1929, long-distance telephone cables for international communication started to be produced and in the 1930s, it was the turn of cables for shipbuilding of the Polish fleet. Furthermore, "Kabel Polski" provided equipment to Polish ships built in England, military units (destroyers ORP Wicher, ORP Burza) or civilian ones (passenger ships MS Batory, MS Piłsudski). In 1929, its production was valued at 10.5 million Złoty and it employed 500 people. Until 1931, "Kabel Polski" had selling branches all over Poland: Warsaw, Łódź, Katowice, Sosnowiec, Łuck, Gdańsk.
The Great Depression impacted the firm between 1930 and 1935: production and employment fell by half. From 1936 onwards, Bydgoszcz cable factory supplied cables for the electrification of the Polish State Railways.
In 1930, "Kabel Polski", together with six other Polish companies sent representatives -Tadeusz Gayczak and Felicjan Karśnicki- to the International Cable Cartel in London to enter the association. In return, each Polish firm got a registered trademark in the form of colored threads identifying their products. The Bydgoszcz facility recognition sign was a twist of blue and white thread coloring the coating.
Working conditions in the company were better than the average in the area of Bydgoszcz, with regards to salaries. The direction was politically close to the Christian democracy and the local union belonged to the "Union of Catholic Societies of Polish Workers" (). The management funded scholarships for employees and set up a sporting club "Kabel Polski Bydgoszcz".
In 1938, the Warsaw firm "Siła i świat" raised its shares in the company up to 95% by buying shares from foreign investors. In 1939, in terms of sales and employment, "Bydgoszcz Cable Factory" was the third most important factory in Poland after Kraków's and Ożarów's plants.
German occupation On September 5, 1939, Polish military authorities ordered two carriages of machines to be sent further east, to Ożarów. During the invasion of Poland, the train was bombed near Kutno, but by the autumn 1939, it returned to Bydgoszcz.
On October 20, 1939, Stanisław Rolbieski and his family were executed in Las Gdański, the northern forest district, as part of the German repressions against the people of Bydgoszcz.
In the first years of the German occupation, the Bydgoszcz Cable Factory was owned by the consortium "Hermann Göring Werke", liable to the "Haupttreuhandstelle Ost" (Trust Office East) in Katowice. The plant was managed by Germans, while Poles worked as workers
In 1940, Werner Kampe, the then Nazi mayor of Bydgoszcz, delivered an anti-Polish speech at the factory. On March 13, 1942, Nazi authorities handed over the factory to the consortium "Felten-Guilleaume AG" in Vienna. During that year, two halls were built: a repair hangar and a storage area, still preserved on the west side of the main hall.