On October 30th 2013, one hundred days away from the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, the Polish Skiing Association and Grupa LOTOS, Poland’s General Skiing Sponsor, signed an agreement for the next season.
Sport
On October 30th 2013, one hundred days away from the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, the Polish Skiing Association and Grupa LOTOS, Poland’s General Skiing Sponsor, signed an agreement for the next season. The last ten years of common effort have produced numerous internationally successful Polish athletes and have constantly advanced Polish skiing.
Our relationship, begun in 2003, is a prime example of successful synergies between sport and business, with the main emphasis on maximum performance, both in terms of sports and sponsorship. The sponsorship agreement with Grupa LOTOS provides international-level training for the Polish Skiing Association team and allows us to reward athletes for their outstanding achievements. Grupa LOTOS has repeatedly sponsored international ski competitions in Poland, such as the LOTOS Poland Tour - a ski jump competition held in Wisła, Szczyrk and Zakopane, or the FIS ski jump Grand Prix in Wisła in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Champion’s successors
But Grupa LOTOS’ cooperation with the Polish Skiing Association is not limited to top winter athletes. It also involves the National Ski Jumping Development Programme ‘In Search of the Champion’s Successors’, which has continued for the last ten seasons.
“For the eleventh time in a row, Grupa LOTOS will be our general sponsor,” noted Apoloniusz Tajner, President of the Polish Skiing Association. “By signing this agreement we are entering another phase of our dynamic partnership. Grupa LOTOS not only supports training of our team, but also finances the National Ski Jumping Development Programme ‘In Search of the Champion’s Successors’, which is one of the best training programmes for young athletes in the world. In addition, LOTOS will help us organise some of the largest international events, such as the World Cup in Wisła and Zakopane. We are very grateful to Grupa LOTOS for these eleven years of uninterrupted work together, which have allowed us to develop Polish skiing and compete with the best in the world. We hope that our team members will make this winter a season to remember, not only for our Grupa LOTOS sponsors, but also for their fans, and that the World Cup will be the pride of our country.”
The largest skiing initiative in history
In 2004, the National Ski Jumping Development Programme was commenced on the initiative of the Polish Skiing Association. It is the largest sporting and social undertaking in the history of Polish skiing, with all significant ski-jumping clubs in Poland involved. Each winter, the LOTOS Cup competitions draw hundreds of young ski-jumpers, and every year Grupa LOTOS sponsors scholarships and awards for the best young ski jumpers and Nordic combined skiers. Maciej Kot, Klemens Murańka, Aleksander Zniszczoł and Krzysztof Biegun were among the athletes honing their skills under the National Ski Jumping Development initiative. Now, nearly every ski jumping and Nordic combined athlete has been a beneficiary of this programme.
“We put our trust in the young skiers and their coaches, and the good results followed very shortly,” said Paweł Olechnowicz, President of the Management Board of Grupa LOTOS S.A. “Jointly with the Polish Skiing Association we have created efficient mechanisms that support the dynamic development of the sport in Poland. Therefore, thanks to a lot of hard work, we have trained a group of exquisite athletes, who represent Poland very well and win the highest awards. We can say without a doubt that the social and sporting programme that we have supported for all these years has been a success, and a model of transparency and effectiveness. We are going further along this path and taking up other challenges, such as supporting the development of young footballers in the Province of Gdańsk and neighbouring towns. This is our social mission and responsibility.”
Over the past ten years of Grupa LOTOS’s cooperation with the Polish Skiing Association, Polish skiers have won:
- 6 Olympic medals (four won by Justyna Kowalczyk and two by Adam Małysz),
- 11 medals at Nordic World Ski Championships in the senior category (Adam Małysz, Justyna Kowalczyk, Kamil Stoch, the ski jumping team),
- 17 medals at Nordic World Ski Championships in the junior category (including six medals won by our ski jumping team in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013),
- 4 medals at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival,
- 5 Crystal Globes: one for victory in the World Cup’s general ranking, one for second place and three for third places,
- 50 victories in World Cup contests (27 in cross country skiing and 23 in ski jumping), 4 highest spots in the prestigious Tour de Ski, 22 wins in the Ski Jumping Summer Grand Prix, and many more in lower-rank competitions.
LOTOS is vertically integrated oil entity focused on crude oil exploration and production, petroleum processing as well as commodities sales. The company is second largest entity in Poland (in terms of net sales revenues). It holds 34,1% stake in domestic wholesale fuel market. Moreover LOTOS leads in motor oil sales in Poland. Since June the 9th 2005 Grupa LOTOS S.A. is listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange. LOTOS throughout its business units located all over Europe (Poland, Norway, Lithuania) employs over 5000 people.
LOTOS operates state-of-the-art refinery (located in Gdańsk), holding a suitable connection to “Druzhba” pipeline and Naftoport - Baltic Sea terminal network. In 2011, using hi-tech solutions e.g. Best Available Techniques (BAT), LOTOS finished comprehensive upgrade investment project (Programme 10+), which main goal was to boost refining capacity to 10.5 mtpa. Programme 10+ fruition was estimated on 1,5 billion Euro. Due to Programme 10+ LOTOS is able to enhance Polish, NW Europe and CEE energy security policy, especially in the range of stable fuel supplies.
On the upstream side LOTOS is present on the Baltic Sea, Norwegian Continental Shelf and onshore in Lithuania. In 2015 LOTOS plans to produce 1,2 mtpa of crude oil, coming form company’s own fields.
LOTOS actively supports alternative sources of energy development, especially throughout its biofuels production unit, located in Silesia region as well as relevant international safety environment conferences promotion and arrangement. Apparently company carries out numerous up to date research projects concerning environmental issues, i.a. CO2 sequestration in empty oil fields in the Baltic Sea within Polish top technical universities staff support.
All abovementioned key goals derived directly from company’s corporate strategy regarding years 2011-2015, which constitutes of pursuing innovative growth in the areas of crude exploration and production, petroleum processing as well as sales and trading of products meeting the most stringent quality standards, in a manner that is environmentally friendly, compliant with the energy security policy, guarantees full satisfaction of customers and ensures the ongoing development of employees and shareholders interest.
