In each of the five categories, the judging panel headed by Wiesław Rozłucki nominated fifteen companies from among 115 entrants. The five best companies were selected by Poland’s President Bronisław Komorowski, who personally presented the awards to the winners during the Poznań International Fair.

“I take more pride in this award than in any other. Even though today the prestige of many contests gets watered down in the deluge of distinctions and certificates, this is an award from the highest office in Poland, universally respected both in business circles and by society at large,” said Paweł Jarczewski, CEO of the Grupa Azoty Management Board, during the awards ceremony. “With this award, the President and the jury show recognition of our sustainable development strategy, which provides not only for dynamic global growth, but also for the needs of people and their social and natural environments. By creating a Group that operates abroad in accordance with sustainable development principles, we are becoming ambassadors of innovative and responsible business, enhancing Poland’s international position in terms of both economic growth and image,” Mr Jarczewski added.

Grupa Azoty has consolidated four key representatives of Poland's large-scale chemical synthesis sector, bringing the plants in Tarnów, Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Police and Puławy under a common brand. Grupa Azoty also operates foreign enterprises – Grupa Azoty ATT Polymers GmbH of Germany, and African Investment Group S.A. who are licensed to carry out production operations on ilmenite sand deposits in Senegal (source of phosphorites). The consolidation process which created Grupa Azoty also gave rise to a new brand which now represents Poland's chemical industry on European and global markets. Today, Grupa Azoty is the largest manufacturer of mineral fertilizers in Poland, and the second largest in Europe. The Company's product portfolio also includes engineering plastics, OXO alcohols and plasticizers, which are exported to over 50 countries. 

The Award was given to Grupa Azoty principally in recognition of the scale and systematic nature of the environmental initiatives implemented at the Puławy plant. Efforts to modernise and reduce the environmental impact of ‘large-scale chemical synthesis’ plants are part of a wider strategy pursued at Group level. The Group has implemented a Responsible Care Framework Management System to eradicate sulfur emissions in the fertilizer production process, while the Puławy Competence Centre, the Group's own research initiative, is working on a project to ensure more efficient absorption of nitrogen from mineral fertilizers. 

Grupa Azoty S.A. was one of the three companies nominated in the ‘global market presence’ category given the scale of its international operations. Grupa Azoty continues the tradition of the company founded 87 years ago on the initiative of Poland's then President Ignacy Mościcki, one of Poland's largest interwar business ventures.