PKP Cargo’s maintenance subsidiary Cargotabor has submitted a restructuring plan to a Warsaw court. PKP Cargo itself has been in restructuring for nearly a year, and Cargotabor initially planned to enter into restructuring in the summer. However, it withdrew its restructuring application, and then changed its mind again.
As of March 2025, over half a year later, PKP Cargotabor has put together a restructuring plan and is submitting it to a Warsaw court for approval. PKP Cargotabor has fallen into financial trouble after its parent company PKP Cargo went down the same path earlier.
The numbers of orders faltered, leading to dramatic situations last summer. For example, power was cut off at the majority of its plants. “In Dąbrowa Górnicza, the power was completely cut off. […] In Tarnowskie Góry, on the other hand, due to the power outage, renovations were stopped in one of the two halls”, a trade union representative said in early August. Reportedly, the company did not pay its energy bills.
PKP Cargotabor was also planning to fire employees, which found out about the news in the media. There were reports that employees could not stand the pressure amid PKP’s financial trouble and started leaving the company on their own.
Restructuring plan
All of this has forced the company to take drastic measures to secure its future. “The PKP Cargo Group has lost its competitiveness and market position in recent years. The lack of vision, strategy for individual companies, as well as cost and expenditure control, have led to the current situation in which the entire group must undergo a process of deep restructuring”, explained PKP Cargo management board president Agnieszka Wasilevska-Semail.
However, she also has hope for the future of the company. “I believe that effective restructuring will allow for the creation of a competitive company that will successfully implement contracts and gain market shares in the coming years.”
The restructuring strategy of PKP Cargotabor is to focus on four areas, the company explains. They include management, human resources, operational activity and finance. Cargotabor aims to optimise processes by concentrating operations on 12 rolling stock repair sections and simplifying the organisational structure. It will also look to diversify sources of revenue.