The Polish government has announced that it wants to acquire the country’s leading convenience store chain Zabka.
The green-branded stores of Żabka (which means “Little Frog”) have become ubiquitous in Poland, with almost 8,800 of them dotted around the country AND 2021 turnover of US$2.5 billion , making it the largest such network in Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw alone has over 1,000 Żabka outlets.
Founded in 1998 by a Polish businessman, Mariusz Świtalski, the firm has subsequently changed hands a number of times, passing between Czech private equity fund Penta Investments, UK retail giant Tesco and MidEuropa, as well as the current owners, Luxembourg-based private equity group CVC Capital Partners.
