Marcin Wesołowski is the owner of NAC Amber brand. He argues that development and success can be achieved even in difficult times.

"The difficult situation on the market forces us to work even more intensely, to look at the wider picture and to set long-term goals and verify them on the basis of the constantly changing market situation. My company's aims are based primarily on quality and patterns which we implement in a slightly different way than what seems to be the norm in the industry. Thus, three years ago we replaced price per gram with price per product. We are convinced that it is impossible to think about patterns creatively when you are restricted by a need to keep a certain proportion of silver to amber, in order to make the production profitable.

Another issue, which is of vital importance to us, is quality which we treat very seriously. To such an extent that we even happened to recall and improve, at our expense, a product when we got the first signals that there is something wrong with it. We contacted all our clients who had bought it...

The client will appreciate the fact that he wasn't left to deal with the problem on his own much more than if the producer pretended that there's nothing wrong with the product. A lot of our customers - we and really value that - help us to understand their' needs. We listen very carefully to what they say, pay attention to their reactions, the personnel in our shops are very helpful, as they are the people who have direct contact with the customers. Thanks to that we know what the clients expect from our jewellery and we try to fulfil those expectations while designing our new patterns. At the same time, of course, we care about the quality and details, such as gemstone riveting, which we use in majority of our products. The quality is also a result of the system of work: contrary to many jewellery companies, we don't pay our employees per item they produce. We are convinced that working under pressure, both time and the weight of the product, is the enemy of good quality.

We try to "take advantage" of the times difficult for investment - because when, if not during the crisis, is there an opportunity to restructure the company...

We haven't spent our profits so far, we also used the European Union grants that many amber companies applied for. The change into price per item has had many benefits for us - thanks to that we know whether and how much we earn on particular patterns. And this lets us prepare a realistic development strategy, knowing what our financial possibilities, clients and potential are... I would like to be crystal clear here: we also feel the impact of the crisis, but we try to work in a way that despite the unfavourable conditions we could develop and survive the difficult years, while building a strong brand of amber jewellery. We believe that our activities will bring measurable effects when the situation on the market will be stable again."