Poland’s Zabka, which is the largest convenience store chain in Central and Eastern Europe, has launched its first shop abroad after opening an outlet in Romania.
The firm hopes to have a total of 200 stores in the country until the end of the year, adding to the over 10,000 it already has in Poland itself.
Zabka is expanding into the Romanian market after taking over a majority stake in local distribution company DRIM Daniel Distributie FMCG – a 30-year family business worth 516.6 million lei (EUR 103.8 million) – earlier this year.
It has now opened its first convenience store in Bucharest. Functioning under the brandname Froo, the store is in a pilot phase and is hence available only to a certain group of test customers in what the firm calls a “friends&family” formula.
“This solution will allow us to respond even better to the expectations of consumers in the local market, as well as to test the facilities in the store,” the company said.
“The further pace of development of the network in Romania will depend on the result of the test phase,” added the firm.
Zabka would like to operate 200 stores in Romania by the end of the year.
In recent years, Zabka – which means “little frog” in Polish – has seen rapid growth. Last year, the firm celebrated opening its 10,000th store. They are run by over 7,500 franchisees.
In 2021, the company claimed that almost a third of Poland’s population lived within 300 metres of a Zabka store.
In 2023, Zabka also became the largest operator of autonomous – meaning cashierless – stores in Europe after launching its Zabka Nano chain of outlets. Cameras automatically detect what shoppers take from the shelves and they are then charged as they leave.
During the test phase of its Nano stores, the firm briefly opened one abroad, at a Tesla factory in Berlin that employed many Polish workers.
Alongside its rapid growth, Zabka has also faced some criticism in Poland for its treatment of franchisees and for exploiting a legal loophole allowing it to operate on Sundays despite a trading ban introduced by the Polish government. (Notes from Poland)