- Cooperation on the following projects: LOTOS Siesta Festival, Agnieszka Osiecka Atelier Theatre, Ladies Jazz Festival, Shakespeare Festival, The Metropolitan Opera, the 1920. Wdzięczni Bohaterom [1920. Thanks to the Heroes] concert, the 12th NNW International Film Festival and support for the organisation of the Solidarność Weekly’s exhibition “Droga ku Wolności” [“Road to Freedom”] and the premier of “The Barber of Seville” at the Polish Royal Opera.
- Patron of the Baltic Opera in Gdańsk and the General Ryszard Kukliński Museum.
- Main Patron of the Music Theatre in Gdynia.
- Support for the “Adult children” concert on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of NSZZ Solidarność and the “Solidarity with Belarus” concert.
- Although many regional events were cancelled due to a pandemic, we traditionally supported events in the south of Poland: LOTOS Jazz Festival — Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa, Jasło Days, Autumn Meetings with the Theatre and the Major Henryk Dobrzański “Hubal” Memorial.
- Other local events supported by the concern included, among others: the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw and supports for the Patria Nostra Historical Competition.
Sponsorship activities
GRI:
In 2020, we continued our numerous sponsorship projects — by supporting the development of culture, art and actively participating in the successes of both young athletes and more experienced players or teams.
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Custom indicator 2
Our commitment to the development of culture and art is reflected in supporting cultural institutions and events located and carried out primarily in the regions where we operate, i.e. in the Pomorskie Province and in the Bielsko and Jasło counties. The basic criterion for the involvement of the Grupa LOTOS in culture and art is the social dimension and the long-term nature of the projects, as well as their importance for the promotion of regions where the LOTOS Group companies operate. We appreciate efforts thanks to which regions increase their potential and attractiveness in terms of cultural offering at a national level.
Cultural sponsorship projects carried out in 2020
2020 proved to be extremely challenging for the culture sector. The new reality forced us to take actions geared towards increasing our online presence in order not to lose touch with our audiences. In hindsight, we consider it a kind of opportunity that we were given to take our feature-length productions to the global web.
Our patron Grupa LOTOS S.A. showed us great support in this new situation. Our partnership helped us continue to deliver top-quality cultural projects. Together we developed a new collaboration model fitting the reality of work under lockdown restrictions. Flexibility in business relationships is the most important lesson we learned in 2020.
The collaboration between the Art&Theatre Society and Grupa LOTOS prompted a rapid growth of LOTOS Jazz Festival, which quickly became the leading jazz festival in Poland and a recognisable brand in Europe and worldwide. Grupa LOTOS is also a patron of the festival’s young jazz musicians’ competition, whose winner receives support in recording, publishing and promoting a debut album.
In 2020, as part of sport sponsorship, the concern carried out 23 projects in the following areas:
- Sponsorship of the Polish Football Team (Polish Football Association), the ski jumping cross-country skiing team (Polish Ski Federation) and sponsorship of the largest Polish cycling event (Tour de Pologne).
- Sponsorship of the Polish and men’s and women’s teams, the youth team and the Polish Championships in all age categories in tennis (Polish Tennis Association) and the main partner of Hubert Hurkacz, one of the most promising Polish tennis players of the young generation.
- Car rallies — cooperation with the LOTOS Rally Team, represented by Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Maciej Szczepaniak — triple European Rally Champions.
- It was yet another year during which the Grupa LOTOS continued its cooperation with the Polish Basketball League, while increasing its financial support for this organisation. In May 2020, the Grupa LOTOS sponsored the Energa Basket League, Energa Women’s Basket League, Polish women’s and men’s basketball teams, as well as Suzuki Polish Cup and Suzuki Polish Super Cup. The Company also supports the gala at the end of the basketball season.
- Sponsorship of the Fight Exclusive Night (FEN) by gaining the title of the Titular Sponsor of all galas organised in 2020.
- Regional projects, including: LOTOS Gdansk Summer Stadium, LOTOS Nord Cup regatta, LOTOS Gryffin CUP and the 48th Żylewicz Memorial.
- Trainings for children and young people — cooperation on social and sports projects addressed to children and young people continued. This applies mostly to football or winter sports, i.e. the above-mentioned Football Future with LOTOS and LOTOS Looking for the Master’s Successors programmes as well as the creation, together with the Polish Tennis Association, of the LOTOS Rackets We also continued the Olympic Hopes programme, in which we worked together with seven talented athletes representing a wide range of Olympic disciplines.
- It should be noted that within the framework of the Football Future with LOTOS programme, the 16th centre was established — Ladies Football Academy Szczecin. It is the second girls-only club under the patronage of LOTOS, which proves an increase in the popularity of women’s football. The formal opening of the centre took place on 8 September. The Football Future with LOTOS programme has been successfully training children and young people for many years, contributing to the development of football in many regions of Poland. The programme operates under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sports and the Polish Football Association.
- In 2020, we also extended our cooperation with the Academic Sports Association and the Polish Academic Team as the Main Sponsor. This cooperation of the Grupa LOTOS dates back to 2018, enabling the Academic Sports Association to implement projects addressed to student athletes and support the physical activity of young people. Thanks to appropriate safeguards and the highest precautions, the Polish Academic Championship, sponsored by the LOTOS Group, was organised again in 2020. The competitions were held from September to December. Sports competitions covered as many as 40 disciplines.
Grupa LOTOS has been the main sponsor of the Polish national team since 2015. In the course of our collaboration the Polish national team made it to the finals of all major tournaments: UEFA Euro 2016, FIFA World Cup 2018 and UEFA Euro 2020. Now we are in the qualifying process for the 2022 World Cup, with the qualifiers for women’s and youth national teams due to start this autumn.
This past year was a challenging time for sports sponsorship as well as for most business sectors globally. Therefore, we are very proud that Polish national football teams enjoy the support of an important patron of Polish sports like Grupa LOTOS S.A. We believe that having weathered the most difficult time of the pandemic together, we can meet the challenges lying ahead together as well. The partnership between the Polish Football Association and Grupa LOTOS S.A. is constantly tightened. For example, last year our main sponsor decided to extend its sponsorship to include the Polish national efootball team, which finished as the runner-up in eEuro 2021. As a way of supporting amateur clubs during the pandemic, Grupa LOTOS S.A. engaged in preparing a competition challenge with fuel vouchers as the prize, demonstrating LOTOS’ commitment to corporate social responsibility. And these were only additional initiatives, because, as we know, LOTOS is first and foremost the main sponsor of the Polish national teams.
Polish Ski Association has maintained its collaborative partnership with Grupa LOTOS, the general sponsor of Polish skiing, for over 18 years now. Throughout this time, it was Grupa LOTOS that has helped us build strong and comprehensive ski jumping in Poland.
I can speak only highly of our partnership as LOTOS has proven itself to be a good and reliable partner. Stability in sports is vital, and LOTOS has always been there for us, both in beautiful moments and in tough times. I would like to thank the management of Grupa LOTOS for that.
The challenging time of the pandemic affected us all, but Grupa LOTOS stayed with us and helped us get through this difficult time and avoid disruptions to the training and development processes. Together we could celebrate the successes of our ski jumpers in the World Cup and at the World Championships in held Oberstdorf, as well as the medals won by our cross-country skiers at the Junior and U-23 World Championships held in Vuokatti.
We are glad that the scope of our collaboration with Grupa LOTOS has expanded despite the pandemic. In 2021, LOTOS became a partner of the Polish Champion Programme, contributing to supporting the development of alpine skiing and snowboarding in Poland.
Collaboration between the Polish Ski Association and Grupa LOTOS has been a multi-faceted project for years. LOTOS supports Polish national teams of the Polish Ski Association and is also the title sponsor of the National Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Development Programme – ‘In Search for the Champion’s Successors’, which is running well and expanding. Grupa LOTOS is also a sponsor of the key sporting events in Poland, including the Ski Jumping World Cup competitions in Wisła and Zakopane and FIS Grand Prix tournaments.
Grupa LOTOS’ support is extremely important for Polish basketball as it directly benefits Polish women’s and men’s national teams as well as the clubs of Energa Basket League and Energa Basket Women’s League. In addition, each player of the week in league tournaments receives a prize sponsored by Grupa LOTOS. I know for a fact that both the teams and individual players truly value this collaboration as it makes the day-to-day running of the clubs easier. The Gdańsk-based company is a great patron of sports, engaging in marketing projects on a long-term basis. We are happy that LOTOS Group will continue to drive our sport forward. Our partnership is helping to raise the prestige of Polish basketball.
This past 2020 was a difficult time for everyone, including us. However, with the backing of partners like Grupa LOTOS, we made it. Thank you for being with us, and I look forward to continuing working together. This is the strength of the Tour de Pologne family.
We went through a demanding year marred by the pandemic. The more I appreciate the stable support of partners like Grupa LOTOS. Thank you for your trust that has long helped us compete and win with top drivers from around the world.
More information about sport sponsorship and ongoing projects can be found on our page.