The PPWK Co. was established in 1991 in place of the PPWK - State Cartogragraphic Publishing House, operating since 1951*. At the time it was the only publishing house offering all kinds of cartographic publications, mostly for schools, motor tourists and hikers.

In 1991 the joint-stock company was set up and soon its shares were admitted into the public circulation. At the same time, the company underwent a complete restructuring, based on thorough market analysis focusing on the investigation of consumer sectors and preferences. In January 1996, the first PPWK Co. quotation on the Parallel Market of the Warsaw Securities Exchange took place. Apart from prestige, it gained the company the financial means to speed up, among others, the computer processing of its cartographic publications.

Despite stron competition, particulary in road atlases and city maps, PPWK is still an indisutable leader on the domestic cartographic market - acquiring over 50% share in this market.

One of its strongest product is shool items. PPWK has the only, corresponding with the school curricula, cohesive and complex offer of shool atlases and wall maps in Poland. A wide group of methodologists were consulted do develop this product line.

The Company's publishing capacity is estimated at 100 to 130 new titles per year, with a prospect of increasing their number to 150. At present it publishes 350 titles per year, addressed to a wide circle of customers, such as school children and youth, teachers and tourists.

The published titles are updated and distributed through a well established network of wholesalers and bookshops, including 60 patronage wholesale distributors and 56 PPWK stalls in selected bookshops all over the country. The great number of this titles are classified in the folowing thematic groups:

• General-purpose atlases: geographical, historical, touring - e.g. Swiat - Atlas Geograficzny (The World Geographical Atlas), Historyczny Atlas Swiata (The Historical Atlas of the World) or Atlas Polski (The Touring Atlas of Poland)
• Shool atlases for primary and secondary levels (13 titles)
• Road atlases of Poland and Europe, including the most popular Atlas Samochodowy Polski (Road Atlas of Poland), scale 1 : 250 000
• street maps of Polish cities and European capitals, scale 1 : 7 500 to 1 : 25 000 (ca. 90 titles)
• Road and touring maps of other countries, touring maps of Poland, scale 1 : 300 000, awarded at the 4th Poznan Tour Salon 1995
• Tourist maps of over 80 most interesting regions of Poland
• Wall maps: geographical, historical, economic, administrative, thematic etc. (over 50 titles)
• Plastic relief maps
• Typhological maps (for the blind)
• Travel guides from the Marco Polo series and cycling quides
• Popular-science books
• Students handbooks for geodesy and cartography

In order to extend the range of its activity, PPWK also customizes and publishes maps, road atlases and city maps on individual client's orders. To such clients belong for instance banks or shipping and transport companies. PPWK publications also offer advertising space. In the near future, the PPWK Co. plans to increase the range of publications, mainly in the sphere of education. The company cooperates with multimedia publishers in editing of cartographic publications on CDs.

The succes of PPWK publications on the market is accounted for by the Company's constant effort to update the succesive editions, as well as its brisk response to the needs and interest of the customers. The Company's publications enjoy a great popularity in the publishing market. They serve millions of people at home and abroad.
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*)The history of PPWK is older than that, as it dates back to the 1920s and Eugenius Romer's "Ksiaznica Atlas" publishing hause, of which PPWK is the successor as far as its form, content and spirit is concerned.