[2] Tele-Fonika Kable group, Bydgoszcz Factory parent company, is the third electric cable manufacturer in Europe, at the head of 5 plants in Poland and 2 others abroad (Serbia, Ukraine).

It was not the first factory from this industry in Bydgoszcz, as Stefan Daszewski and Rafał Kukliński, Polish emigrants in the USA, had set up earlier the same year the joint US-Polish company, AMPOL, producing incandescent light bulbs at 4 Sienkiewicza Street.

[6] By the start of WWII, many other cable production sites opened in Poland: initially in Warsaw and Ruda Pabianicka, then in Kraków (1927), Będzin (1927), Czechowice-Dziedzice (1928) and Ożarów Mazowiecki (1931).

In 1938, cable factories were set up in Central Industrial District (Dwikozy, Lubartów) but could not be completed due to the outbreak the armed conflict.

In 1922, Stanisław Rolbieski purchased second-hand machines in Weimar Republic, which took a long way back to Bydgoszcz via Finland and the Free City of Danzig, due to the German–Polish customs war then in place.

[5] The factory was officially opened on June 4, 1923, with the five departments (Rubber, Telephone, Machine press, Tin, Wire drawing)[5] and covered an initial surface of 8.5 hectares (21 acres).

[11] Regular customers were, among others, "Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna" in Warsaw, PKP, the Ministry of Post and Telegraphs and its branches directorates throughout Poland, the Railway Signals Factory and several power plants in Bydgoszcz, Ostrów Mazowiecka, Toruń or Poznań.

[6] On February 22, 1927, a terrible fire almost completely burned down the facility: only the power plant, the boiler room and workshops survived.

[6] The extensive insurance policy contracted by "Kabel Polski" was able to cover the 1.5 million Złoty damages while enabling the funding of a modernization and a further expansion.

Within one year, a new hall designed by architect Bronisław Jankowski was added, comprising 2 gantry cranes and equipped with steam machines from the "F. Eberhardt company" located at "2 Berliner straße" (today's Swiętej Trojcy street).

[5] In the 1930s, several new factory buildings were built, among others: The plant had also its own quay on the Brda river which was used on occasion to receive imported copper wire rods ferried from Warsaw via the Vistula.

Over the following years, the Fire Brigade conducted training exercises, took part in firefighting operations and secured numerous incidents, including outside the factory in the local community.

[12] To allow further development, an agreement was concluded in 1927, with the joint stock company "Felten-Guilleaume A.G." from Vienna, which entered the Kabel Polski capital (15%) in exchange for technical supervision and licences.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the shared capital was again increased by 5 million Złotys, following agreements with companies "Felten-Guilleaume" in Vienna and Budapest, and the "František Křižík's Electrotechnical Workshop" in Prague.

[5] In 1935, a license agreement for the production and sale of load coil cables was signed with the "International Stanford Electric Corporation" in New York City.

[8] In 1930, "Kabel Polski", together with six other Polish companies sent representatives -Tadeusz Gayczak and Felicjan Karśnicki- to the International Cable Cartel in London to enter the association.

[5] On October 20, 1939, Stanisław Rolbieski and his family were executed in Las Gdański, the northern forest district, as part of the German repressions against the people of Bydgoszcz.

[4] In the first years of the German occupation, the Bydgoszcz Cable Factory was owned by the consortium "Hermann Göring Werke", liable to the "Haupttreuhandstelle Ost" (Trust Office East) in Katowice.

[8] The plant was managed by Germans, while Poles worked as workers[14] In 1940, Werner Kampe, the then Nazi mayor of Bydgoszcz, delivered an anti-Polish speech at the factory.

[17] In the summer 1947, Marian Rejewski, the outstanding mathematician and cryptologist, had the position of director of the sales department at the cable manufacturing company.

[1] A canteen stood on the premises, supplied from 1952 to 1958 by its own farm located in Łąsko Wielkie and in the 1960s a factory holiday center was built in the sea-side city of Stegna.

Several new products were launched: In the 1970s, export contracts were signed with USSR, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Turkey, Lebanon, Singapore and the United Arab Republic.

In this new structure, "Bydgoska Fabryka Kabli" was a leading factory for the production of power and signaling cables, coated in PVC and in rubber, making for 15% of the entire combine output.

[8] At the beginning of the 1980s, the production of cables collapsed and employment was reduced by 25%: due to economic sanctions in retaliation of the introduction of martial law in Poland, no polyethylene was delivered from United States.

[6] On March 15, 1993, the plant became the ownership of the Polish State Treasury, under the name Bydgoska Fabryka Kabli S.A. (BFK SA)[1] The Bydgoszcz facility was then identified as a pilot site for privatization, among 12 cable industry companies.

On February 17, 1999, several cable factories (Bydgoszcz, Ożarów Mazowiecki and Szczecin) merged into the holding "Elektrim Kable S.A.".

[17] The oldest factory buildings that survived till today were erected in 1920–1924:[8] These edifices still display their carefully developed architectural details.