Carpetright enters Poland and will open four stores in 2006

After Tesco and ElectroWorld, now Carpetright, a London bourse listed carpet producer, decided to enter the Polish market. The company plans to open two stores, in Warsaw and Gdańsk, in the first half of 2006, and another two by the end of the year. Over the next three years the Polish network will expand by another 20 outlets and ultimately will amount to 40. Carpetright evaluated the Polish flooring market potential at GBP 600 million (over zł.3.3 billion). According to the company's representatives, over the next few years the value of the market will increase by 40%. Jerzy Szkwarek, deputy president at one of the domestic fitted carpet producers Komfort, believes that the entry of a new player will have little impact on the domestic companies, as most fitted carpets sold in Poland are imported from EU. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 7) A.F.