Pepco: The Polish chain officially debuts in Greece

Opening one store a day – sometimes more than one – Poland’s retail discount chain, Pepco, currently has 2,922 stores in 16 European countries, while from October it will add the Greek market to its portfolio.

Keeping with the timetable announced by the Polish chain last November, the first Pepco store, with characteristics of Danish Flying Tiger stores in terms of product mix, and prices like Greek retail chain Jumbo, opens in October of 2022 at the Piraeus Retail Park, sealing its strategic partnership with Trade Estates AEEAP, a Fourlis group company.

It should be noted that to the portfolio of Trade Estates, which already includes retail parks both in Greece (Thessaloniki, Agios Ioannis Rentis, Piraeus) and abroad (Bulgaria and Cyprus), 4 new locations will be added in Patras (on the property of the former ABEX, on the Dymaion Coast), Heraklion (near the airport), Spata (across from Smart Park) and Chalandri (Dukisis Placentias Street).

In Thessaloniki

In addition to Attica, Pepco stores are immediately open in Thessaloniki, with the chain having recently published advertisements for staff, while further expansion will follow in the rest of the country, with Larissa being among the first choices.

In total, the Polish chain, which proceeded to establish a subsidiary, Pepco Greece, managed by Lithuanian Julius Petrulis, plans to open 12 stores in Greece with an area of 350 to 650 sq.m. each.

Read also – TRADE ESTATES: Welcomes the PEPCO store chain to Greece

Pepco is active in the sale of clothes for the whole family, fashion accessories, cosmetics, toys, household equipment and decorative items, while the purpose of Pepco Greece also includes the creation of an e-shop.

Low prices fast growth

A key characteristic of the Polish chain is low prices (value retailing) and as mentioned in the financial report for the 9 months (it closes its financial year on September 30), a brilliant future lies ahead.

In particular, under the weight of inflationary pressures the market for discount chains across Europe is now much larger than it was at the time of the previous financial crisis in 2007-08, which means that a much larger customer base is more familiar and now shops more often at low-cost chains.

The Pepco group, which in addition to the Pepco brand also manages two more brands, the hard discount chain Poundland, as well as the smaller Dealz, opened a total of 483 new stores in 2021, with its entire network at the end of last year reaching 3,504 stores worldwide while employing more than 37,000 employees.

Only in the period March – June this year, 109 new Pepco stores opened, while to give an idea of how fast the chain is expanding, it entered Austria only last year and already has 47 points of sale. In Bulgaria, within three years, it opened 120 stores, while in Italy and Serbia, which started in 2020, it currently has 71 and 75 stores respectively. In total, it has developed 2,922 stores in the 16 European countries where it is present, with 42% of them located in Poland.

The nine-month group turnover was €3.58bn, up 17.4% YTD on a constant currency basis, while it has opened 350 new stores (excluding the closure of 59 Fultons stores).

Pepco Group debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in May 2021.

Owned by the Steinhoff Group

Pepco, as well as the hard discount supermarket chain Poundland, as well as the smaller Dealz, which also markets food, household cleaners, decorative products, etc., are subsidiaries of the Steinhoff group, which in 2015 acquired Pepkor (South Africa), including the Pepco group (formerly known as Pepkor Europe).

As stated on the official website of the Pepco group, while the majority of the shares are indirectly owned by Steinhoff, it is managed independently through its decentralized leadership team.