Pepco Group, the owner of the Pepco and Dealz brands in Europe and Poundland in the UK, will operate in 20 territories across Europe from tomorrow when it opens its first store in Portugal.
The new Pepco store in Coimbra will be closely followed by new openings in Albufeira and Olhão later this month. Further launches are also planned in cities across Portugal over the course of the year.
The new stores in Portugal will offer a full range of Pepco’s clothing, general merchandise from homewares to toys, and FMCG lines from Poundland, including toiletries, cleaning and laundry, personal care, confectionery, and pet care. The enlarged offering follows the success of trials across Pepco stores in Spain as part of the retailer’s strategy to become a “bigger, better, cheaper and simpler business”.
The opening of Pepco’s first store in Portugal represents the latest phase of the group’s expansion in Western Europe, including entering Germany, Austria, Italy and Greece in recent years. It will launch the Pepco brand in Bosnia and Herzegovina later this year as part of plans to open at least 550 net new stores in its current financial year, primarily through the Pepco brand.
As of 31 March, the group operated 3,101 Pepco stores and 1,026 Poundland/Dealz outlets.
Trevor Masters, CEO of Pepco Group, said: “Our launch in Portugal marks another important step in the Group’s profitable store expansion programme – our biggest source of value creation – and further validates our belief the whole of Europe is addressable to us. Following the successful introduction of Pepco’s three-category format in Spain, we are confident that customers in Portugal will be attracted to the unbeatable value of our combined clothing, general merchandise and FMCG offer.”
NAM Implications:
- Right offering, right time, right place.
- Only issue, given rising inflation…
- …will be holding to a single (low) price medium and longer term.
