Polish textile producer Dywilan S.A. has made a name for itself as one of the two manufacturers of woven artificial grass in Europe. The family-run business started manufacturing artificial grass almost ten years ago, by using their experience and knowledge in the production of woven carpets. Now Dywilan delivers high quality artificial woven grass to some of the biggest football clubs in the world. Since few years all products sold by DYWILAN are fully recyclable.
In 2000 Piotr Jakubiak and his family took over Dywilan, once a successful public owned company with over 1.500 employees. After a revolution in Poland, the demise of the Berlin wall and the Persian Gulf War Dywilan went bankrupt in 1999. One year later Jakubiak bought some of the real estate and machines, the trademark Dywilan and the right to use existing designs. Under the wings of Piotr and his father Jacek the company flourished again.
By using their experience and knowledge in the production of woven carpets – supported by modern machines - Dywilan started in 2010 with manufacturing woven artificial grass for sports. With help of funds obtained from the European Union’s Cohesion Funds Dywilan was able to launch its woven grass manufacturing line in the fall of 2010. Two years later it became the first company to produce a woven mat for hybrid grass.
Euro 2012
Owing to the Euro 2012 Football Championship, which was co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine, Dywilan secured contracts from a number of major football stadiums. The company delivers high quality artificial woven grass to numerous customers in Europe, Asia and the US. Customers include Hamburger SV, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Austria Wien. The worldwide partner for FIFA pitches is the company ACT GLOBAL.
"Today, artificial surfaces are a much more favourable environment for sportsmen than before. They used to cause injuries, they were harder and slippery. but today, they demonstrate a high quality which can ensure that footballers can play in comfort and safety owing to new materials," said Jakubiak recently during a visit of Inno4Sports to Lodz.
Verde
Dywilan is now once again a successful business. It’s an example for the whole region of Lodz and through Verde – Cluster for Sport Innovations, partner of the Inno4Sports project, Jakubiak hopes to help other local business grow the same way his own company did.
