Żabka Polska (; ''lit.'' "little frog") is a chain of convenience stores 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 populou ...

. There are at least 9,000 manned and unmanned stores across Poland, including at least 500 in Warsaw and over 340 in the Tricity area, as of . Some Żabka stores are located in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and owned by the Czech branch of the UK retail giant

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

plc. The retail turnover was about €650 million in 2010. As of 2022, Żabka has more than 15.5 million customers.

History

Żabka was founded by entrepreneur

Mariusz Świtalski Mariusz Świtalski (born 19 May 1962) is a Polish entrepreneur. He is the founder of Elektromis, Eurocash, Biedronka, Żabka, Małpka Express and has been named as one of the richest people in Poland by Wprost weekly. Biography and Career ...

in 1998 and in the same year opened its first seven stores 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 Joh ...

and Swarzędz. By October 2005, Żabka had 1,700 stores throughout Poland. In 2007, Żabka was acquired by

Penta Investments Penta is a Central Europe investment group founded in 1994 in Slovakia by Czech Marek Dospiva and Slovaks Jaroslav Haščák, Juraj Herko, Martin Kúšik and Jozef Oravkin. Today, the group actively develops companies and projects, primarily ...

. In December 2010, Penta sold the Czech operations of Žabka and its Koruna subsidiary to UK retail giant

plc. The deal was closed in April 2011. In February 2011, Penta signed an agreement to sell the remaining Polish operations Żabka Polska, including the Freshmarket store format, to Mid Europa Partners. In 2016, Żabka underwent a rebranding. In February 2017, Mid Europa Partners closed a deal to sell Żabka for an undisclosed value (but estimated by analysts between €1 billion and €1.5 billion) to the

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

based CVC Capital Partners. Since 2018, after the long-expected Sunday trading ban in Poland was introduced, Żabka Polska has increased its focus on

self-checkout Self-checkouts (SCOs), also known as assisted checkouts (ACOs) or self-service checkouts, are machines that provide a mechanism for customers to complete their own transaction from a retailer without needing a traditional staffed checkout. When ...

s and

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

unmanned store An unmanned store is a retail concept in which there are no service personnel and cashierless store, no cashiers in the store. The transactions are handled through a mobile application. Unlike an automated convenience store, the unmanned store conc ...

s, the latter using the Microsoft Azure

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...

platform. In late-2022, Jaroslaw Kaczynski suggested that the Polish Law and Justice government might buy Żabka from CVC Capital Partners.

Formats

In addition to its regular manned stores, Żabka also has smaller, unmanned stores called Żabka Nano (formerly Żappka, also the name of Żabka's

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

, introduced in 2020). The first Żabka Nano store was opened at the grounds of the

Poznań International Fair The Poznań International Fair (PIF, pl, Międzynarodowe Targi Poznańskie, MTP) is the biggest industrial fair in Poland. It is held on the Poznań fairground in Poland. Poznań International Fair is located in the centre of the city opposite ...

in June 2021. Notable Żabka Nano stores include one located inside Poland's largest Decathlon store in

Piaseczno Piaseczno is a town in east-central Poland with 47,660 inhabitants. It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship, within the Warsaw metropolitan area, just south of Warsaw, approximately south of its center. It is a popular residential area and ...

, opened in December 2021, and a pilot store located at the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany, which operated during the third quarter of 2022.

References

External links

* (Poland) * (Czech Republic) Convenience stores Retail companies established in 1998 Retail companies of Poland Polish brands {{Europe-company-stub

History

Formats

References

Further reading

External links