In 1918, when Poland regained access to the Baltic sea, new prospects opened for Polish foreign trade. C.Hartwig took advantage of that, and, in 1919, established a branch office in Gdańsk. A few years later, on 15 November 1926, the company decided to open another branch office, this time in Gdynia, a dynamically expanding port town. The Gdynia branch office evolved over the years to finally become the head office of C.Hartwig Gdynia S.A. Three years after its foundation, the company boasted 11% of Poland’s foreign trade. At the same time, it was providing brokerage services.
In 1930, the Gdynia office ceased its operations only to resume them on 1 January 1936. Sea forwarding remained the chief activity of the branch. Between 1936-1938, the branch accounted for as much as 49% of the total Polish foreign trade turnover, and the main import goods included butter, zinc, iron, and cellulose, while main import goods were cotton, fertilizers, silver, jute, cocoa, tea, coffee, and rubber.
The Second World War put an end to the company’s development.
