NEW MARKETS - Pepco set to expand into Greece, Portugal

• Published date: 13 October 2022
• Publication title: Business Day (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Markets WriterSteinhoff’s European discount retailer, Pepco, will expand into Greece and Portugal in its 2023 financial year, the company said on Wednesday ahead of the release of its annual results

"Following recent successful openings, we will be launching the Pepco brand in the new markets of Greece and Portugal in the 2023 financial year. We are also trialling our broadest offering of clothing, general merchandise and Fast-moving consumer goods under the Pepco banner in a handful of stores in Ireland," Pepco Group CEO Trevor Masters said.

This comes as the company, which owns the Pepco and Dealz brands in mainland Europe and Poundland in the UK, is aiming to open "at least" 550 in 2023 after it beat its 2022 target of 450 new stores by opening 516 stores. These new stores included 446 Pepco ones — including 163 in Italy, Spain, Germany and Austria — and 70 Poundland stores.

"After another year of good progress, we are accelerating our profitable store-expansion programme — our biggest source of value creation — and store refit strategy, helping to drive like-for-like sales growth," Masters said.

Steinhoff owns 79% of Pepco, which has its biggest footprint in Poland, has been expanding into Western Europe and in Spain and opened its first stores in Austria in 2021.

Pepco said in its pre-close trading statement for the year to end-September it expects group revenue...