Another defeat for Janusz Palikot. Żabka terminates cooperation and sells products

Until recently, Żabka was one of the few retail chains that promoted the sale of beer and vodka produced by companies from the MPWiW Group, owned by Janusz Palikot. Selected products from this offer were available only in Żabka stationary stores and in the Delio online store, which also belongs to the Żabka Group.

Janusz Palikot’s financial difficulties

As reported by the Żabka Polska press office in an interview with wiadomoscihandlowe.pl, the chain of stores has not been ordering products from companies associated with Janusz Palikot for several months. In some stores, however, you can still find the items that are currently sold on sale.

Janusz Palikot’s financial problems have been widely reported by the media for some time now, including the money.pl portal. According to available information, the Manufaktura Piwa Wódki i Wina (MPWiW) he manages was in arrears with payments to the Social Insurance Institution in February of this year in the amount of PLN 424,876.32.

It is also worth recalling that the indebted MPWiW company is currently implementing an arrangement with 1,237 creditors. This plan assumes increasing revenues and repaying overdue liabilities, which amount to over PLN 172 million.

Creditors, dominated by private individuals who had lent Palikot’s company funds for development, agreed to restructuring through an arrangement. The vote on this matter took place at the end of October last year, and the restructuring process was formally announced on August 4.

Penalty from the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection for Palikot

Earlier this month, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) decided to impose a financial penalty on Janusz Palikot and the Polskie Distylarnie he manages. Palikot was charged PLN 950,000, while Polskie Distylarnie must pay PLN 239,000. These penalties result from misleading consumers during the “Skarbiec Palikot” loan campaign, as reported by UOKiK.

The “Skarbiec Palikot” campaign consisted of collecting funds from consumers who had the opportunity to grant the company a loan for further development. Promotional activities, conducted mainly through Janusz Palikot’s social media, encouraged investment. Palikot, as a member of the board, was personally involved in the promotion, organizing, among other things, webinars for potential investors. However, after only six weeks, the company stopped paying interest on the loans and ended the campaign, which was assessed negatively by the UOKiK.

According to the UOKiK announcement, Polskie Distylarnie provided false information on their website regarding the scale of their operations, claiming that they are a “leading Polish producer of ethyl alcohol” and that their customers are large companies from the pharmaceutical, fuel, chemical and cosmetics industries. This information turned out to be false.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection also stressed that the only beneficiary of the “Skarbiec Palikot” loan campaign were Polskie Distylarnie, despite the fact that consumers were suggested to profit from a wider group of companies. The company also promoted a wider range of alcohols and awards and distinctions won, which in fact belonged to other entities.