Baczewski

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Modern Monopolowa bottle produced in Austria

Baczewski is a name of a Polish szlachta family and a brand of one of the most popular European fine spirits producer. The factory was based in Lwów and until 1939 was one of two most popular Polish export goods. The family of Baczewski was of distant Valachian descent and signed itself with the Sas coat of arms.

1 History
2 See also

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings

In 1782 a distillery was founded in Wybranówka, a small suburb of the city of Lwów, Poland. In 1810 a small, local spirits factory was inherited by the founder's son, Leopold Maksymilian Baczewski, who moved the firm to another of Lwów's suburbs, Zniesienie. The suburb was soon swallowed by the fast-growing metropolis and the factory at Żółkiewska Street started to grow rapidly. The family business was one of four distilleries in Lwów, but it was remarkable for introduction of new technologies. It introduced a double rectification process only two years after Aeneas Coffey invented it. The liqueurs, rosolises and vodkas produced with this technology were much more smooth and clear than most of other brands, which gave the company large popularity, not only in the city, but also in other parts of the Austrian Empire. As a result, the company received from the imperial court the prestigious mark of Imperial Eagle. Later, the court also granted the company with the title of "K.u.K. Hoflieferant", or "Imperial and Royal Purveyor to the Court".

[edit] J.A. Baczewski

At the end of 19th century, the firm was inherited by the founder's great grandson, Józef Adam Baczewski. A graduate of Lwów University of Technology and a specialist in spirits technology, Józef Adam refurbished and significantly expanded the factory. He also bought new production lines in France, the Netherlands and built a new refinery. He also started to export Polish spirits to other European countries, including France, United Kingdom, Italy and Germany. This started the popularity of Polish vodka abroad. Józef Adam was one of the first businessmen in Central Europe to introduce marketing on a large scale. To distinguish his vodkas and liqueurs from other brands available to Europeans, he ordered all export spirits to be sold in crystal carafe rather than bottles. With time all Baczewski's bottles were turned into carafes as well. In 1894, during the National Fair in Lwów, the carafe-shaped pavilion of J.A. Baczewski company was chosen as the most interesting exhibition - and the most visited. The marketing strategy also included advertisement in press, on leaflets and posters.

After Józef Adam's death in 1911, the firm was inherited by two of his sons, Leopold and Henryk. The earlier was a graduate of the Chemical Faculty of the Vienna University and took over the production while the latter was a lawyer and continued their father's active marketing strategy. They also introduced new brands, until their times sold only locally. When Poland regained her independence in 1918, the company had a well-established name and the brothers decided to stay with their fathers' name rather than change it to include their own name. The popularity of the spirits was so great that in many Polish books and poems of the epoch, the brand "Baczewski" is used as a synonym to "vodka".

[edit] Fall

In the Interbellum the company was run by Leopold's son, Stefan Baczewski. He decided not to increase the volume of production to preserve the prices and the quality. To promote the most luxurious of the products, Stefan also signed contract with two of the Polish trans-Atlantic ocean liners, the M/S Piłsudski and M/S Polonia. He was also the first spirits producer to transport his products by plane on a daily basis. Since 1930's the liquors from Lwów were shipped to Paris, Vienna and Prague by plane. As an interesting example of marketing, some of the clear 40% vodkas produced by J.A. Baczewski company were labelled with the brand and a small slogan saying that "the only vodka of comparable quality is produced by Pierre Smirnoff of Russia". The Lwów-based Smirnoff factory introduced a series of similar labels.

After the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War of 1939, the factory was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Lwów. After the city was seized by the Soviet Union, the remnants were levelled to the ground and a new factory of emery paper. However, the brand continued to live as a synonym of quality. Its' popularity was maintained by many notable writers and poets of the epoch, including Marian Hemar. Last bottles of Baczewski's spirits were sold for huge prices even 30 years after the war.

[edit] After-life

After Poland regained her independence from the Soviet Union in 1989, the Starogard Gdański-based branch of the Polmos company started to produce several of Baczewski's spirits under licence from Stefan's successors. However, in late 1990's the license expired and the production was halted.