Discount Retail Chain Vollmart (owned by Brand Distribution, the biggest European parallel trader of branded products) opens its first store in Poland. The first discount store of the new Vollmart chain, created by the well-known businessman Wiktor Sawosz, will open in Siedlce. The retailer will develop in a hard discount model, similar to the Russian hard discount chain Mere, it will reduce costs to an absolute minimum in order to be able to offer customers cheaper products than those of competitors.
Our strategy is to open the Vollmart hard discount stores in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, in attractive, well-connected locations, says Joanna Bielecka, manager of the purchasing department in the new chain, to the website Komunikoscihandlowe.pl. The economic situation and the expansion of Vollmart hard discounters in other towns will show whether Warsaw will be an attractive market for us, adds the representative of Vollmart.
The company does not officially announce the pace at which it intends to develop the chain of stores. It is worth recalling, however, that Wiktor Sawosz (owner of Brand Distribution), signaling his will to create a new retail network in 2020, mentioned plans to "pilot 3-5 stores, including in Białystok (...) and in Warsaw". Without revealing almost any details of the project, he indicated then that the test period would last several months, and that ultimately the concept could be developed not only in Poland, but "also in other European countries".
The company name of the hard discount network indicates its enormous ambitions. The word "Vollmart" evokes immediate associations with the American Walmart, the largest chain of stores in the world. However, the Polish "equivalent" of the network controlled by the Walton family does not make such a comparison. "Voll" in German means "complete, complete". Hence, Vollmart's slogan is: "Full of Opportunities". Today we are focusing on the development of the network in Poland, but our plans are related to expansion into foreign markets, which is why we were looking for a universal name, explains Joanna Bielecka.
The first Vollmart was launched not in Białystok, but in Siedlce, a city where more and more commercial concepts have recently debuted (Topaz Cash & Carry, previously Selgros wholesale in a new, smaller format). The store was opened at ul. 3 Maja, close to the city center, on the ground floor of a modern building, which was built on the site of a former tin with a small Tesco supermarket. 10 people found employment in the discount store in Siedlce. As we have established, Vollmart also employs eight employees at its headquarters.
The offer of the facility includes food products, such as dairy products, cold cuts, meat, sweets, drinks, but also cosmetics, household chemicals, kitchen accessories, household appliances and articles for animals. The store's permanent assortment will consist of 800 to 1,200 products. The offer will rotate depending on customer preferences. If the goods do not meet with interest, we will replace them with new proposals, announces Joanna Bielecka.
In Vollmart, at least for now, customers will not find fresh products such as bread, fruit or vegetables. In turn, the cold cuts will be available in the form of hermetically packed, portioned products. The chain also does not plan to develop its own brands, instead it promises to bet on "popular and known" local producer brands.
Vollmart intends to fight for prices with Biedronka, Lidl and other Polish discount competitors. Vollmart intends to keep the prices for the entire assortment at a level of at least 20% lower than prices in other stores.
Vollmart will offer its clients the lowest prices on the market, which means that we compete with every network, while guaranteeing the client a completely new format of a modern hard discount on the Polish market. We want to share the margin with our customers, says Joanna Bielecka.
Keeping low prices in the store is to be possible thanks to the resignation from unnecessary costs in the form of newspapers, advertisements or expensive equipment. The goods at Vollmart will be sold, as is the case in hard discount stores, straight from the pallets. Our client is guided by common sense, wants to buy wisely, not to overpay. Remember that in the Vollmart hard discount store we select the offer in terms of basic needs and verify it in terms of quality, explains the representative of the chain.
See here for more: https://www.wiadomoscihandlowe.pl/artykul/dzis-rusza-pierwszy-sklep-vollmart-poznalismy-plany-nowej-sieci-hard-dyskontow-galeria-tylko-u-nas
