Pepco hits milestone with 3,000th store

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Dec 2, 2022

Quite a milestone for Pepco Group. No wonder it calls itself “the fast-growin"g pan-European variety discount retailer, having just opened its 3,000th Pepco store. The owner of the Pepco, Dealz and Poundland brands and maker/retailer of the Pep&Co fashion line, makes its landmark opening in Berlin, Germany. Pepco currently has four stores in Germany, with more in the pipeline.

After launching in Greece in October, the Pepco brand now operates in 17 countries having only opened its 2,000th store in Croatia in June 2020, “reflecting the speed of its highly targeted expansion”.

And this growth is set to continue with plans to launch the Pepco brand in Portugal on track for spring 2023.

And as stated at its pre-close announcement in October, the group plans to open at least 550 net new stores in FY23, primarily through the Pepco brand. However, Poundland also plans to introduce five new UK stores, two extensions and one relocation, primarily larger stores offering its full range of clothing and homewares, and creating 160 new UK jobs.

Pepco’s diversified offer spans some 500 categories at “market-leading prices”, including women’s, kids’ and men’s clothing, as well as homewares, toys and cosmetics. The chain also provides limited collections, licensed products and seasonal offers, including back-to-school or Christmas collections. Of Pepco’s own-brand clothing and general merchandise, it noted 84% is supplied by its vertically integrated sourcing operation, PGS.

Trevor Masters, CEO of Pepco Group, said: “The whole of Europe is now an addressable market to us, and we will continue our profitable store opening programme – which remains our biggest source of value creation – to capitalise on this opportunity.

He added: “This is an exciting time for Pepco, and we continue to make good progress against our strategic ambition to become a bigger, better, cheaper and simpler business. As we continue to grow, we will bring our popular retail proposition to more customers and deliver on our purpose to help families on a budget by offering great range, value and convenience.”