There Are Many Ways to Love Bytom. TSL Silesia Celebrates Its Silesian Roots
There are many ways to love Bytom. You can talk about the city, photograph its streets, preserve its history and show others the places worth discovering. But there is another way to share Bytom with the world — through the everyday activities of a company headquartered here and operating internationally.
TSL Silesia, a Bytom-based company specialising in international freight forwarding and customs services, has been finding its own ways to introduce Bytom and Silesia to employees, business partners and clients from other parts of Poland and abroad.
After all, if this is where the company grew, why not tell others about the place it comes from?
Silesian — not just for special occasions
One of TSL Silesia’s ideas was to bring the Silesian language into its corporate materials. Calendars and notebooks prepared for clients began to tell not only the company’s story, but also something about Silesia, its language and its character.
This is how slogans such as:
“TSL Silesia – rychtych dobro organizacyjo transportu.”
became part of the company’s communication.
A map of Poland highlights Bytom — the place where the company’s story begins — alongside key transport and logistics locations. The materials also feature a small “Silesian TSL dictionary”, explaining that cug means train, auto means car, papiōry means documents, rajzować means to travel and rychtyg means truly or correctly.
It may seem like a small detail, but details like these encourage a client from another part of Poland or another country to ask: “What does that mean?”
And that question can become the beginning of a conversation about Silesia and Bytom.
From Silesia to the world
TSL Silesia’s operations have long extended far beyond the city limits. The company provides, among other services, rail, road, sea and air freight forwarding, customs services and container transport.
That is why another slogan appears in its materials:
“ZE ŚLŌNSKA WE ŚWIAT” — “From Silesia to the world.”
A company can operate internationally, work with clients from many countries and still remember exactly where it comes from.
Building relationships under sail
Silesian identity does not mean staying within the boundaries of the region. Quite the opposite — it can become a starting point for discovering the world together.
TSL Silesia runs its own employee integration project, giving team members an opportunity to meet outside the office, spend time together at Marina Wapnica and sail on the company’s yacht.
Special T-shirts were created for the project featuring the distinctive phrase:
“TSL Silesia – jo ci przaja.”
It is the Silesian expression of affection used here as the company’s own version of “I love TSL Silesia”.
This year, the company decided to emphasise its roots even more strongly.
Instead of simply writing “Kocham TSL Silesia”, it chose the Silesian:
“TSL Silesia – jo ci przaja.”
The design appears in several versions — on classic white, vibrant turquoise and elegant black T-shirts.
Just a few words printed on a shirt. Yet behind them lies something much greater: a place, a language, heritage and a sense of belonging.
A company can promote its city too
Promoting a city does not always require a major advertising campaign. Sometimes it begins with something much simpler.
With a calendar sitting on a client’s desk.
With a Silesian word they have never heard before.
With a map where Bytom appears alongside Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin and major border crossings.
With a T-shirt that makes someone ask: “What does jo ci przaja mean?”
And then there is an opportunity to tell the story.
A story about Silesia. Its language. Its industrial heritage. Modern-day Bytom. And a company that has been organising transport from here to destinations across Poland, Europe and the world for more than 20 years.
Being an Ambassador of Bytom and Silesia does not end when you leave the city.
Sometimes one of the best ambassadors is a company that grows, travels and works internationally — while carrying a piece of its roots wherever it goes.
Ze Ślōnska we świat. From Bytom — with pride.
And in Silesian, it can be said even more simply:
Jo ci przaja, Bytom.
Jo Сi Przaja, Bytom 🙂
I love Bytom wherever I go. I take this love with me on my travels, into my work and into meetings with people from different cities and countries. And I try to share it — because love for the place we come from should have no boundaries. I want Bytom to be discovered, appreciated and positively recognised far beyond Silesia.
Wiktoria Kwiatkowska
President of the Management Board, Ambassadors of Bytom and Silesia Association
Marketing Director, TSL Silesia
