InPost explains remarks about PZPN: comments taken out of context, it says, and referred to Ekstraklasa

InPost has ended its sponsorship deal with the Polish Football Association (PZPN) after four years. The decision sparked debate after a remark by one of the company's representatives, and the firm has now offered further explanation.

What the InPost representative said

At the Sport Biznes Polska congress, Grzegorz Łagowski, InPost's head of international sponsorship and communications, spoke about changes in the company's sponsorship strategy. According to Sportowe Fakty WP, he said the company felt it had already used up a good deal of the potential in strategic sponsorship and had begun to lack certain elements. He named seasonality, centralisation in Warsaw and image among the factors.

"Some matters are best not discussed publicly, but image is very important for the InPost brand," Łagowski said.

The remarks were read in two ways. Some people saw a dig at PZPN and a hint that the partnership had ended on bad terms.

The company's response

InPost's marketing director, Izabela Karolczyk-Szafrańska, addressed the matter in an interview with "Fakt". She said that after four years the company had noticed that working with PZPN mainly meant a presence in Warsaw and reaching a relatively limited audience attending prestigious events. InPost, by contrast, has customers across Poland and wants to be closer to local communities.

In her view, the partnership with Ekstraklasa fitted that direction perfectly, and the company is very pleased with it. She added that it had felt the same about its four years working with PZPN.

Karolczyk-Szafrańska also said that several things had coincided, and that Łagowski's remark had been taken out of context and did not concern the partnership with PZPN. According to her, the presentation quoted referred to a project carried out with Ekstraklasa.

What next

The available information suggests that InPost does not describe the split with PZPN as a conflict, but as a change in the direction of its sponsorship activity. The source does not say who will become the association's new partner or what the terms of the ended agreement were.