Silpo's owner may buy out the French Carrefour chain in Poland

French retailer Carrefour is planning to sell its stores in Poland. One of the main contenders may be Ukrainian Fozzy Group (Silpo, Fora, Thrash!), reported polish edition of Wiadomości Handlowe.

In September, Carrefour commissioned investment bank JP Morgan to prepare the sale process. It involves 768 outlets operating under the Carrefour Polska brand.

These are 95 hypermarkets, 148 supermarkets, seven low-price stores (Supeco) and 518 convenience stores (mainly Carrefour Express). Carrefour also owns 40 shopping centers in Poland.

Fozzy Group has been looking at the Polish market for a long time, the publication notes. In 2023, the company opened a grocery store in Poznanbut not under the by the Silpo brand. IDKFA IDCLIP, a joint venture company owned 90% by Fozzy Holdings Limited and 10% by its Polish manager Maciej Gawronski, became a franchisee of Carrefour.

The experience of managing this store gave Ukrainians the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the structure and model of the Polish Carrefour franchise. This may facilitate a possible takeover of the chain, experts believe.

The main advantage of Fozzy Group in entering the Polish market is the large Ukrainian diaspora in Poland (approximately 1.5 million people). The main obstacle for Fozzy Group in Poland is logistics.

"The nearest Silpo distribution center is located in Lviv, more than 200 km from Lublin and more than 300 km from Krakow. Without its own distribution center in Poland, servicing a large number of supermarkets will be difficult," said Igor Guglia, director of GT Partners Ukraine, a research company.

According to his estimates, even to serve only Ukrainian citizens in Poland, a network of at least 150-200 stores would be required.

Industry sources say that the possible acquisition of stores by the Ukrainian chain should not cause problems for the Polish Office for the Protection of Competition and Consumers (UOKiK). Since Fozzy Group is just entering the market, there is no risk of excessive concentration.

The company did not comment on the potential purchase of Carrefour's Polish assets.

Experts also name Dino chains among potential buyers, Biedronka, Kaufland, etc.

• Fozzy Group is owned by Volodymyr Kostelman, who founded the company in 1997 in Kyiv. Fozzy Group currently owns the second largest supermarket chain in Ukraine after ATB-Market.
• As of the second half of 2025, the company operated about 840 retail facilities of various formats: from discounters and minimarkets to hypermarkets and Silpo supermarkets. These figures do not include outlets in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.