Bucking the Trend

A decade ago, Niepolomice was just another cash-strapped Polish municipality struggling to make the transition from communism to capitalism. The four state-owned enterprises based in the area were collapsing; the best and brightest young people were fleeing to the big cities; unemployment was climbing. Mayor Stanislaw Kracik was desperate. Realizing that "one can't build capitalism without capital," he decided to find some people who had it.

Though Niepolomice, which has a population of just 21,000 and lies some 20 km east of Krakow, was 25th on Coca-Cola's list of possible sites for a $30 million...

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