In the battle for the acquisition of Studenac, alongside the previously mentioned CVC Capital Partners, which we recently reported on, the Polish retail chain Biedronka has also entered the fray. According to an unofficial source who confirmed this information to us, the Polish retailer is currently considered the most likely buyer of Studenac. We also sent inquiries to the Polish chain regarding this acquisition, but no response has been received from Biedronka.
Unlike CVC, which, like the current owner of Studenac, Enterprise Investors, is a private equity fund whose investment strategy involves further expansion of the chain and a sale within five to seven years, Biedronka is a strategic investor with a similar business model to that of Studenac.
Namely, Biedronka, like Studenac, has so-called proximity stores, but unlike the domestic chain, it falls into the category of discounters and has somewhat larger store sizes (600 to 1000 square meters and 400 to 500 in smaller towns). Additionally, Biedronka is the largest retail chain in Poland with around 3,500 stores across the country and an annual revenue of 21.5 billion euros. Recently, it surpassed the state-owned company Poczta Polska in terms of the number of employees and is now the largest employer in the country with 80,000 workers.
The revenues of the ‘Polish ladybug’, as Biedronka is called (the translation of the Polish word biedronka means ladybug), have grown at double-digit rates over the last two years (22 percent in 2023 and 24 percent in 2022), and it has recently begun expanding into the Slovak market. The media has also mentioned Romania as a new potential expansion option, but so far these plans have not materialized.
In the War with Lidl
The Polish discounter is currently in fierce competition with Lidl, and the back-and-forth between these two retailers over who is cheaper recently ended up in court. The battle between the two giants began with Lidl’s jumbo posters stating: “Lidl is cheaper than Biedronka 2023.” The ads contained information that Lidl’s lower prices were confirmed by market data from the newspaper Fakt and an independent study by ASM Sales Force. Biedronka responded with an ad stating that it has been cheaper than Lidl since 2002. This was followed by an aggressive campaign sending messages to cardholders with examples of products that are cheaper than Lidl, to which Lidl responded with its lower offers. Thus, during Fat Thursday, when donuts are traditionally eaten in Poland, they reduced the price of donuts from 29 to 18 zlotys through mutual competition.
The owner of Biedronka is the Portuguese company Jerónimo Martins, which also has the supermarket chain Pingo Doce and the cash & carry chain Recheio in Portugal, as well as the neighborhood store chain Ara in Colombia. Additionally, the company has a developed agricultural-food business in Portugal and Morocco, as well as the cosmetics store chain Hebe in Poland and the Czech Republic, and online sales of Hebe in Slovakia. Jerónimo Martins has around 134,000 employees, the company’s annual revenue amounts to 30.6 billion euros, and according to Deloitte’s analysis, it is ranked as the 47th largest retailer in the world and the 19th largest food retailer in Europe.
