Poland’s Sinsay opens physical store in Greece

After Pepco which already has 4 stores on Greek soil with the aim of immediately reaching 10, the LPP group, the largest “fast fashion” retailer in Poland, is charging.

Read also: Pepco launches operations in Greece with ten new stores

The group’s brands: Reserved, Sinsay, Cropp, House and Mohito have already developed online stores serving the Greek public, while in the first quarter of 2023, the brand Sinsay, which is also the most profitable , will acquire a physical presence in our country.

Advertisements for the store in Heraklion, Crete, which “will open soon” have already appeared on various job search websites.

Read also: The foreign “bargain” chains that are changing the face of Greek shopping

The target is initially the large cities of the country, Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa and Heraklion, without excluding the expansion to smaller ones.

Already the samples from the shopping traffic in Sinsay’s e-shop are extremely positive. In fact, as noted in the group’s financial report for the six months of the current year, which ended on July 31, 2022, the Sinsay brand experienced rapid growth with a 63% increase in revenue mainly from online sales in Greece, Spain and Italy.

In addition to Greece, the Sinsay brand is also planned to enter Italy. At the same time, the debut of Reserved in Milan is planned for 2023, while the expansion in London, with stores in three shopping centers, is also being prepared.

Greek subsidiary and new general manager

For Sinsay’s entry into Greece, a company has already been set up since last June, LPP Greece Single Person Private Capital Company, with the initial capital amounting to 1 million euros.

The administrator of the company is Slawomir Loboda, one of the four vice-presidents of the Board of Directors of the LPP group.

Recently, Sotiris Sigalas was appointed general manager of the Greek subsidiary.

With long experience in retail, Sotiris Sigalas worked at Marks and Spencer for 12 years as Area Sales Manager (Greece, Bulgaria), as Head of Retail for Greece & Associated Territories (Greece, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro ) and as Head of Operations for Greece.

In the previous 7 months he was Real Estate Manager for Greece and Cyprus at Marinopoulos Coffee Company, the company that manages the network of the Starbucks coffee chain in Greece, while for 3 years he was general manager at Neo Plaza, the first discount village in Cyprus .

Compensation for war losses

The decision to expand into new markets, especially in southern Europe, where the Polish group “sees growth potential for its brands”, was taken after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Immediately after the outbreak of war, the Polish fashion group first decided to suspend its operations in Russia and then to sell the Russian subsidiary to a Chinese joint venture.

In May, it announced that the stores it owned would open under new brands after they come under new ownership.

Control of the Russian subsidiary of the Polish fashion group passed in June to the unknown Far East Services – FZCO, based in the United Arab Emirates. The price was 324 million zlotys (about 69 million euros) and the payment will be completed within the next four years.

Although the LPP group maintains that it has permanently left Russia and has no intention of returning there, it is possible that it will reappear. In fact, it will be forced to do so if the stores it sold to the Chinese turn out to be unprofitable. According to the agreement, the Poles must buy back the Russian chain of stores by 2026.

The profile of the LPP group

The LPP group under the management of its founder, Marek Piechocki, has been active in the fast fashion industry for the last 30 years and its shares are traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

With a presence in 38 countries on three continents (Europe, Asia and Africa), both with a network of physical stores and through online sales, it is estimated that it distributes more than 259 million items of clothing annually.

In total at the end of July this year, it had 1,756 stores with a sales area of ​​1.45 million square meters in 25 countries, while in 13 more it has a presence only through the digital channel.