Pepco launches operations in Greece with ten new stores

The Polish Pepco chain is making its debut in the Greek market with ten stores. The first, with a total area of ​​500 m2, opens tomorrow, Thursday, October 6, at the Piraeus Retail Park of Trade Estates AEEAP, a Fourlis group company.

The opening of the second store of the low-cost chain, which is growing at a rapid rate, opening one store a day, will take place next week, specifically on Tuesday, October 11, on Petrou Ralli Street.

Another store will follow in Attica, one in Larissa and two in Thessaloniki, with Greece becoming the 17th European market in which Pepco operates and the 19th region for the parent company, the PEPCO Group. The Group owns the hard discount chain Poundland in the UK, as well as the smaller Brand Dealz in Poland and Ireland.

Next to Sclavenitis

The interesting thing is that the store in Petrou Ralli, like the one that will open in Ilion in November, are located next to a Sklavenitis hypermarket.

“Pepco stores are present in shopping malls, retail parks and near boulevards with access to densely populated areas,” said Ms. Anca Radu, Pepco’s Retail Director for Southern Europe, during yesterday’s press briefing . When asked about it, she noted, that the proximity to large food stores is something common in the markets where Pepco is developing.

Also next to retail giant Jumbo

But, what is even more interesting, is that the Pepco store in Ilion is located in the Escape Center where, in addition to the Sklavenitis chain, Jumbo also has a large store. Theoretically, the clientele of the retail chain of Apostolos Vakakis is the one that the Polish brand is also targeting.

The third Pepco store in Attica will open in November in Maroussi, specifically in the Avenue shopping center.

Larisa and Thessaloniki

Also within November, a store in the discount and entertainment center Fashion City Outlet in Larissa will be added to Pepco’s potential, which has a total of 2,918 points of sale in Europe.

In addition, two stores will open in Thessaloniki. The first in Stavroupoli, next to the large Public – Media Markt store and the second in the area of ​​Pylaia.

Three more stores are coming

In addition to the seven stores mentioned above, the chain is in the final stages of signing leases for three more stores with the final number of outlets to operate remaining unclear.

Mr. Bogdan Grigoriu, Pepco’s Operations Manager for Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, expressed optimism that Pepco will prove popular with the Greeks, as the country is a key market for the group.

The value of the average basket is 10 euros

With the most expensive code in Pepco stores not exceeding 30 euros, the chain offers a wide range of products in around 500 categories.

Clothing and footwear make up about 60% of the merchandise available, with the rest covering home furnishing and decorating items and other products such as toys.

In the countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the value of the average basket amounts to 10 euros, according to Mr. Grigoriu, while further west, such as in Spain it rises to 13 euros.

Pepco’s customer profile

– In most markets where the Pepco chain has a presence, 90-96% of women are familiar with it.

– The clientele of Pepco stores are mainly women around 39 years old, with one or two children.

– Nine out of ten of the chain’s customers (92%) use the internet and more than half, i.e. 55%, have children aged 14 and under.

– Pepco customer income averages 476 euros per person and 1,195 euros per household.

– 66% plan visits to Pepco and visit stores 3.5 times a month.

Dizzying numbers and rhythms

The low price (value retailing) Polish chain is growing at an exoritant rate.

The 1000th store opened in 2016, and four years later, in 2020, the number of stores doubled, while today it is close to 3,000.

in the period March – June 2022 alone, 109 new Pepco stores opened, while to understand the speed with which the chain is opening new stores: it entered Austria only last year and already has 52 points of sale. In Bulgaria, within three years of its presence, it has 122 stores, while in Italy and Serbia, where it began operating in 2020, it currently has 79 and 83 stores respectively.

In the 9th month period (closing the financial year at the end of September) the turnover of the group amounted to 3.58 billion euros, recording a YTD increase of 17.4% on a constant currency basis, while it has opened 350 new stores (excluding the closure of 59 Fultons stores).

Currently, Pepco employs 24,000 workers, while in the Greek market it plans to hire more than 150 workers during the first year of operation of its network.