Retail potential in Poland

Poland is an important trading partner for flowers and plants. Since the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the Polish economy has rapidly transformed from a centrally planned economy to a free-market economy.

FCI’S first webinar on Poland’s retail market discussed the opportunities in Eastern Europe for floral breeders, growers, exporters, and wholesalers.

In Poland, the discount stores cover approximately 70 per cent of all fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) food sales, and the flower sales are ‘impulse buys’.

Tomasz Szacon, consultant of Retail Poland.

Tomasz Szacon deals with international commercial networks. He says selling your product to these merchants is tough, and he warns that you need to know your figures if you want to stand out from the competition. The expected consumer prices for flowers in these stores decrease from PLN 19.99 to PLN 9.99.

He adds: “All Polish discounters work through a central warehouse. So, when calculating cooperation costs, you must consider that the delivery will always be to the main warehouse.”

Collaborating with hypermarkets is a different matter. These are destination shops in good locations, with whole aisles for fresh flowers and gardening.

The demographic is much older, but Szacon underlines, “Hypermarkets are often franchised, too, so individual stores can buy without the consent of the head office. The downside is that they won’t need to buy a whole truckload of a product.”

Robert Radkiwiecz, co-creator of Polish Garden Centres.

Consumers do go to DIY stores and garden centres to buy ornamentals and plants specifically. Robert Radkiwiecz is co-creator of Polish Garden Centre, where he trains many family-run firms on the importance of a customer experience and how to signpost plant displays better.

He says, “The customers are ‘demanding’, looking for new products and what is fashionable in the current season.”

He adds, “Polish garden centres are going through massive development, not only due to the pandemic but also because of the wealth of the potential client’s wallet, which in the garden store is higher than other retail outlets.”

Table (below) by Tomasz Szacon for FCI webinar.

Watch the webinar on-demand

This article first appeared in the September 2022 edition of FloraCulture International.