Experts in pet business

Janusz Jankiewicz set up his aquatics company in 1984 at the time when Lech Walesa was changing the face of Polish politics. The company survived the political upheaval five years later unscathed and embarked on a path of more rapid growth. It supplied air pumps and filters, many of them private label brands, to numerous industrial and retail customers in its domestic market in Poland as well as to some neighbouring countries. In 1996, Janusz Jankiewicz eventually acquired rival firm Aqua-Szut, retaining this product line up to the present day as an independent brand in the range. Bogumil Jankiewicz, son of the company’s founder and a member of the management team, describes the purchase of German aquatics manufacturer Bioplast in 2003 as a particularly important milestone in the firm’s history: “This acquisition enabled us to produce fish food and glass aquariums, which still constitute a key element of our range.” This acquisition also marked the arrival of Aqua-El on the international aquatics scene. Multi-brand policy Aqua-El’s overall range comprises around 1 300 products, including 800 in the aquatics segment, broken down into five brands: “Aqua-El” is the biggest and most extensive of the company’s brands, offering a full range of aquatics and garden pond products. A very similar range is presented under the “Aqua-Szut” umbrella, but these products retail at a lower price than “Aqua-El” and virtually represent an entry-level brand. Aqua-El’s acquisition of the “Pet-Inn” line of Italian company Feberplast marked a departure from the aquatics sphere; the range of cages for birds and small animals, along with a number of plastic products, is now manufactured in its entirety by Aqua-El. The machinery for this was brought to Poland from Italy. The latest addition to the brand portfolio is the “Comfy” brand, comprising a series of beds, leads, collars, bags, scratching posts and accessories for dogs and cats. Other brand new products from the R&D department at Aqua-El are items in the “Ventus” brand range: three different sizes of wind generators for generating electricity for private and commercial users along with photovoltaic systems are intended to provide the company with a financial mainstay outside the pet supplies sector. Facilities nationwide Today Aqua-El is an internationally active company with around 500 employees and four plants in Poland. Junior director Bogumil Jankiewicz stresses the realignment of the company as the Aqua-El Group…