Biedronka is a chain of
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s. It is the largest chain of
discount shop
A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cost ...
s in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
with 3,283 stores as of 2022
and 70,000 employees (2022). It is owned by the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
group
Jerónimo Martins
Jerónimo Martins SGPS, SA (JM) is a Portuguese corporate group that operates in food distribution and specialised retail. It operates more than 4,900 stores in Portugal, Poland, and Colombia.
The group is the majority owner of Jerónimo Mart ...
. The name "Biedronka" means "
ladybug
Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...
", and a cartoon ladybug is the company's logo.
Biedronka sells mainly local products, many of which are manufactured under the company's own label. It also sells some Portuguese-made products, mostly wine. Initially targeted at lower-income customers, it is now one of the most popular supermarket chains in Poland.
Biedronka has had a dominant position in Poland's grocery retail market for over a decade, and its main competitor in Poland is
Lidl
Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG (; ) is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 11,000 stores across Europe and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, whi ...
.
History
The founder of the Biedronka was an entrepreneur
Mariusz Świtalski
Mariusz Świtalski (born 19 May 1962) is a Polish people, Polish entrepreneur. He is the founder of Elektromis, Eurocash, Biedronka, Żabka (convenience store), Żabka, Małpka Express and has been named as one of the richest people in Poland by W ...
, an
Elektromis owner. The first shop of the "Biedronka" chain was opened in
Poznań
Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...
at Newtona Street on April 6, 1995.
In 1997, Jerónimo Martins bought 210 stores from Electromis, and since then dynamically developing this chain (in March 2010 in Poznań at ul. Bobrzańska was opened by 1,500 stores and by 2012, 2000 stores opened). In September 2014, the chain launched a shop № 2500, and in February 2019 store № 3,000.
In 2008, more than 120 stores of the German chain
Plus
Plus may refer to:
Mathematics
* Addition
* +, the mathematical sign
Music
* ''+'' (Ed Sheeran album), (pronounced "plus"), 2011
* ''Plus'' (Cannonball Adderley Quintet album), 1961
* ''Plus'' (Matt Nathanson EP), 2003
* ''Plus'' (Martin Ga ...
and transforming them into subsequent stores of the Biedronka network took place.
In the list of "Rzeczpospolita" "List of 500 largest enterprises in Poland", from year to year, Biedronka takes up higher places. In a similar ranking developed by the weekly "
Polityka
''Polityka'' (, ''Politics'') is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. With a circulation of 200,050 (as of April 2011), it was the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of ''Newsweek''s Polish edition, ''Newsweek Polska'', and ''Wpr ...
" company Jerónimo Martins Polska SA took in 2009 5th place, and in 2010 — 4. On October 8, 2012 in
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
at St. Rokicińska 366, the two-thousand Biedronka store was opened. 2500 store of chain was opened September 15, 2014 in
Milanówek
Milanówek is a town and a seat of a separate gmina, commune in Poland. Located next to the Grodzisk Mazowiecki County near Warsaw, it is often considered an outlying suburb of the capital of Poland but is in fact an independent entity administr ...
at St. Krolewska 21.
Gallery
File:Biedronka in Piecki 2015.jpg, A Biedronka store in Piecki
File:2016 Sklep Biedronka w Stroniu Śląskim.jpg, A Biedronka store in Stronie Śląskie
Stronie Śląskie (german: Seitenberg) is a town in Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district ( gmina) called Gmina Stronie Śląskie, close to the Czech border. It lies a ...
File:Ruda Śląska Niedzieli Biedronka DSC 7071.jpg, A Biedronka store in Ruda Śląska
Ruda Śląska (formerly ) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a district in the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union, a metropolis with a population of two million. It is in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica River (t ...
File:Biedronka in Białystok (interior view) 4.jpg, Inside a Biedronka store in Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
File:TIR zaopatrujący Biedronkę.jpg, Biedronka's truck during unloading, Tomaszów Mazowiecki
Tomaszów Mazowiecki (, yi, טאָמעשעוו or ''Tomashuv'') is a city in central Poland with 60,529 inhabitants (2021). The fourth most populous city in the Łódź Voivodeship and the second with free public transport. In Tomaszów Mazowiec ...
References
External links
Unofficial forum for Biedronka employees and customers
Retail companies of Poland
Supermarkets of Poland
Retail companies established in 1995
No frills
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