Foodcom specialises in trading raw materials and functional additives for the food, feed, chemical and FMCG industries. The company is known for its transparency and was the first in the industry to publish actual transaction prices. It has also recently launched a new project that may change the way small businesses buy raw materials.
From the outside, commodity trading may seem to be mostly about logistics and spreadsheets. What really determines success in this business?
Alex Paciorkiewicz: Our traders play the key role. They are on the front line, constantly analysing the market, following trends, contacting counterparties, negotiating terms and closing deals. Their job is not only to sell, but also to understand the situation on the other side. They check what is happening at the supplier’s end, what drives their decisions and what their next move might be. It is work where reflexes, the ability to anticipate and building trust are what count.
It is a profession where it is not enough to pick up the phone and send an offer. You have to know when to act, how to play a given conversation and how much you can risk. And decisions are sometimes made in a split second.
It is work where reflexes, the ability to anticipate and building trust are what count.
Alex PaciorkiewiczFounder & CEO, Foodcom S.A. & FDCM
That is why you often compare this work to a game of poker. How much do trading and playing at the table have in common?
More than you might think. In poker, just as in negotiations, it is all about observation – recognising the other side’s intentions before they have a chance to reveal them. Everyone wants to buy as cheaply or sell as expensively as possible, but the whole art is to move the conversation where we want it within the same price range. And that is the game. Quiet, strategic and based on details that are easy to miss.
That is why I took poker seriously. I read a dozen books, analysed strategies and learned how to make decisions under pressure. Today I organise poker tournaments for our traders – with prizes and legally, of course, but more as a development tool than entertainment. Because at the table, exactly as at work, you can learn to control your emotions, read micro-reactions and not give away what you are holding.
In poker, just as in negotiations, it is all about observation – recognising the other side’s intentions before they have a chance to reveal them.
Interestingly, you do not believe in working after hours. But it is hard not to notice that recent years have not been conducive to stability. How is the commodities industry coping?
Indeed, we have had some very intense years… First COVID, then the outbreak of war, and now the geopolitical turmoil around the United States. These are situations that affect the whole market, especially in commodities. Interestingly, though, the biggest surprise for many turned out to be not the war or the pandemic itself, but what is happening in American politics.
Many investors and traders expected political chaos to drive commodity prices up, because that is usually what happens: when uncertainty grows, capital flees the stock market and moves into physical goods. Instead, Donald Trump introduced such a level of unpredictability that the market reacted the other way round. Instead of growth, there was a freeze.
People do not know what to expect, so they put decisions on hold. Nobody wants to contract large volumes today. Purchases are minimal, only for current needs. The appetite for risk has disappeared; nobody plans more than a few weeks ahead. It is a difficult moment for commodity traders, because many classic products, such as oils, milk powder and starches, have stalled. But we are adapting. We are looking for product groups that react less to global fluctuations. Such niches always exist – you just have to find them and switch quickly.
Because you want to play on the front line. What is your main motivation today?
I have been in this game continuously for fifteen years. I started with a few shipments a week; today hundreds of trucks and containers travel across Europe and the world. And it does not stop. But it is no longer about money. Because when you reach a certain level and do not have extravagant needs, money stops being a goal in itself.
I am driven by something else. The opportunity to make decisions that really change something. Risk, adrenaline, but also the ambition to build something bigger, something international. That gives me satisfaction. And it was precisely from this need – combining passion with real action – that the idea for the FDCM platform was born.
When you reach a certain level and do not have extravagant needs, money stops being a goal in itself.
Until now you have been associated mainly with wholesale trade – large volumes, big B2B business. FDCM, on the other hand, is a completely different model: mid-volume trade. Why did you decide this segment was worth investing in?
The idea had been growing for a long time, but there was no room to deal with it. Foodcom was developing rapidly, and I was completely absorbed in running the company. Only when we managed to build a stable management team could I step back a little and return to a concept that had been on my mind for years.
It was not a one-off impulse. In fact, the market itself showed us. Ever since we started publishing our transaction prices on the website, customers we had never had on our radar began to contact us. Small and medium-sized companies that need smaller quantities but want to buy simply, quickly, without intermediaries and without unnecessary procedures.
Foodcom’s website features open price lists, which is still rare in this industry. Why did you decide on that? Is it a matter of transparency, or rather a marketing move?
At first it was an experiment. We started publishing prices as a way to attract attention, so that customers would simply come to us on their own. Of course, these are not one-to-one transaction prices. They are rather a starting point – we show the price at which we are ready to sell a given product at a given moment. But the trends – rises, falls, fluctuations – are real.
And it really worked. The website started generating huge traffic, and inquiries kept coming. Only not from the customers I had expected. I thought we would hear from companies ready to buy full trucks. Instead, smaller players got in touch – bakeries, store chains, medium-sized businesses that wanted a pallet, two, maybe three. And these were not isolated cases, but 80–90% of all inquiries.
And that is when the idea of creating something completely new was born?
Yes. Because on the one hand we had enormous traffic and real customer needs, and on the other – internal resistance. My traders did not want to deal with it, because they focus on large transactions where a single deal can be worth more than 7–8 million euros.
And I did not want to build a physical wholesale business. Logistics, warehouses, vehicles, deliveries – that is a completely different world. Instead, we decided to move this model online. That is how FDCM was created – a platform that fills the gap between wholesale and retail. The customer can order smaller quantities, but still within a B2B model. In other words, quickly and efficiently, and without unnecessary paperwork.
So the customers who used to hear “please come back when you are buying a full truck” can now buy from you directly on the platform?
Exactly. It was a coincidence, but one worth taking seriously. Because when it turned out that 80–90% of inquiries came from exactly these customers, I realised that we were ignoring a huge segment of the market. And I already have access to very good prices anyway, because the wholesalers that later split the goods into smaller lots are my customers.
Thanks to FDCM, I can bypass them in the supply chain and sell directly, offering a better price and faster service. It is a solution that works because it responds to a real need: the lack of a transparent and efficient sales channel for smaller B2B buyers.
The scale you are talking about is impressive. Does FDCM have ambitions to become the dominant platform for such transactions in Europe?
I do not want anyone to compare us with others, because we play in a completely different league. There are those who do not take on heavier loads. Their logistics end at 25 kilograms. Our transactions start exactly there. We handle shipments from a single pallet to full trucks. We sell butter in blocks of 25 or 40 kilograms. Powders are packed in bags, usually 25 kilos each, and we already have customers who pay up to PLN 200,000 upfront for such loads. But nobody will risk transferring a million złoty for a truck of butter without contact with a human being. And that is the fundamental difference.
FDCM is meant to fill the space between wholesale and retail. Mid-volume trade – that is where I see potential. It is a market of transactions that are too big to be sold in classic online shops, but too small to interest the big traders. And that is exactly why it is not cannibalising our core business at Foodcom. It is rather a natural complement. The platform is already working – there are customers, there are orders, there are repeat transactions. Now it is time to scale it.
Nobody will risk transferring a million złoty for a truck of butter without contact with a human being.
That sounds like the beginning of a longer journey. Are you considering a stock market listing?
Yes, definitely. Going public is part of our plan. We do not treat it as a symbolic step or a goal in itself, but as a tool that can significantly accelerate our growth. We already have a strong team and a proven business model, but to grow faster and more efficiently we also need additional resources – and not only financial ones. Investors can bring specific competences, for example in logistics, automation or international expansion. That is why we see the stock exchange as the next stage of development. We are already preparing, building the structures and processes that will allow us to enter the public market responsibly.
And from what you say, it is not only a business project, but also a personal milestone?
Definitely. For years I avoided too much media attention. I still do, because I know that privacy is a luxury. But I also know that you cannot develop a venture like this without a face, without a clear vision and without taking responsibility for what you are building. Maybe that is why I follow standout figures on the market with curiosity. It is not about copying their path, but about understanding that building a valuable company in Poland takes courage. And transparency. Which we have plenty of. That is why we show our prices, that is why we are recognisable on the market, and that is why customers want to trust us. Even when hundreds of thousands of euros are at stake.
