Spar Group South Africa to acquire Polish supermarket chain Piotr i Pawel

May 16, 2019

Piotr i Pawel
South African SPAR Group has signed a letter of intent to acquire a majority stake in Polish supermarket chain Piotr i Pawel. Piotr i Pawel was founded in 1990, has 75 supermarkets in Poland and a turnover of $554m. It is South African SPAR Group’s first investment in Eastern Europe.

South African SPAR Group operates in Southern Africa, whre it has 2,308 stores, Switzerland, the UK, Ireland and Sri Lanka. The news of its intent to invest in Poland comes as the group revealed that revenues rose by 8.6% to R54.3bn ($3.84bn) in the half-year to 31 March 2019.

Piotr i Pawel was founded in 1990 by Eleonora Woś and her two sons, Piotr and Paweł. It has a turnover of $554m and 75 supermarkets across Poland – around 20 of which are franchises. The company has 1,000 private label products as well as an ecommerce platform. Piotr i Pawel also operated the Polish buying group Grupa Handlowa PL Plus. Grupa Handlowa PL Plus was established in 2013 by Piotr i Paweł, convenience retailer Topaz and the wholesaler Bać-Pol Group (which owns the spar franchise in Poland). Shortly after launch, Polomarket joined the group. Grupa Handlowa PL Plus went into liquidation in March 2019.

Piotr and Paweł has been seeking a major investor since 2017, when the company ran into financial difficulties. This led to it halving its store network from 140 stores down to the current network of 75 and severe cutbacks as it fought for survival. South African SPAR Group’s intent is to convert Piotr i Paweł stores to the Spar banner. An issue is that Spar Polska currently belongs to the Bać-Pol Group, which has operated Spar Polska since 1996. At present, there are 250 branches in Poland under the Spar banner. Polish media has reported that Spar Polska is opposing the termination of its franchise and its handover to South African SPAR Group, and has submitted an application to courts in Rzeszów and Amsterdam.

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