French supermarkets invade Poland

Alain Souillard, CP's general director, said that "We will spend EUR 110 million (zł.471 million) in Poland during the next 18 months. We want to launch new stores in Poznań, Gdańsk and the first one in Rzeszów. These will only be Champion stores." But that's not the end of CP's planned projects, as the company wants to open a further 30 outlets in towns with populations over 50,000 by 2006-07. CP already owns 16 hypermarkets and 72 supermarkets in this country. By the end of the year it will open its Zielona Góra store and its new stores in Chorzów and Legnica are near completion. "Poland has a very high potential. There are 250 large-space stores here while in a similar-sized country like Spain there are 650-700," added Souillard. CP's 2003 turnover was zł.3.6 billion. (Puls Biznesu, p. 8) D.W.