Poland’s largest convenience chain Żabka opens first store abroad

Poland’s Żabka, 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 by the end of the year, adding to the over 10,000 it already has in Poland itself.

Żabka wchodzi do Rumunii! Ploteczki na ten temat chodziły już od jakiegoś czasu, ale proces faktycznie rozpoczął się właśnie teraz. Firma Froo Romania (rumuński oddział marki) poszukuje pracowników na stanowiska kierownicze i HR-skie. Obecnie zakłada się uruchomienie 200 sklepów. pic.twitter.com/uDCZEjmUbd

— Kamil Całus (@KamilCaus) May 6, 2024

Żabka is expanding into the Romanian market after taking over a majority stake in local distribution company DRIM Daniel Distribuţie FMCG – a 30-year family business worth 516.6 million lei (€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 told Romanian news website Economica.

“The further pace of development of the network in Romania will depend on the result of the test phase,” added the firm. Economica reports that Żabka would like to operate 200 stores in Romania by the end of the year.

Almost a third of Poland’s population now lives within 300 metres of a Żabka convenience store, over 7,200 of which dot the country@mariawilczek looks at the rapid rise of the chain – whose name means “little frog” – as well as the criticism it has faced https://t.co/Qb1aPFyONo

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 1, 2021

In recent years, Żabka – 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 Żabka store.

In 2023, Żabka also became the largest operator of autonomous – meaning cashierless – stores in Europe after launching its Żabka 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 employs many Polish workers.

Alongside its rapid growth, Żabka 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.

Polish grocery chain Żabka now has Europe’s largest network of autonomous stores.

It aims this year to overtake Amazon as the world’s biggest operator of such cashierless outlets https://t.co/zsComUNx5k

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 23, 2023

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Main image credit: Cybularny/Wikimedia Commons (under public domain)

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.