A mysterious billionaire decided to buy a factory for the production of exclusive vodka in the EU

The mysterious billionaire and owner of the European retail chain Dino wants to buy the Szczecin factory of exclusive vodka in Poland. This is reported by Business Insider with reference to its own sources.

We are talking about the Polish entrepreneur Tomasz Bernacki. This is one of the richest Poles and the owner of the Dino Polska chain, who joined the race for the purchase of the Szczecin vodka factory "Starka". Bernacki is a mysterious billionaire, as he avoids communication with the media, and there is not a single photo of him in them. The bankrupt Szczecin enterprise employs more than three thousand people.

The author of the article claims that, although Dino Polska has not yet officially announced this, the information has been confirmed by three independent sources. A law firm will conduct business on behalf of the company.

In August last year, Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the cost of Starka oak barrels alone ranged from 50 million zlotys to 604 million zlotys (12-144 million euros). However, the latter amount may be some exaggeration, since the expert compared the cost of vodka with the cost of whiskey with a similar aging period.

But vodka and barrels are not everything. Starka is a valuable brand, its trademark is protected in Poland, the European Union and a number of other countries, including Australia. The potential buyer will also become the owner of the plant itself, that is, an expensive real estate object.

As of the end of 2023, SFW Starka had debt obligations in the amount of 66 million zlotys (about 15.8 million euros) to be repaid. The bankruptcy case of the plant has been dragging on since 2022. The terms of consideration of the case have been repeatedly extended by the creditors themselves.