Pepco (retailer)



Pepco is a Polish variety store chain with stores across Europe. It is part of the London headquartered, but Polish listed Pepco Group alongside sister brands Poundland and Dealz. Pepco stores account for the lions share of the group's stores with 3500 branches across Europe (out of a total of 4600), and has replaced Dealz (in format and brand) completely in most European countries, except for Poland and Ireland.

History
In 1999 the British retailer Brown & Jackson expended into in Poland, where they opened Poundstretcher stores in the country. Following poor performance, B&J Poland was sold to South African firm Tradegro in 2002, and was taken over by Pepkor in 2004. Following the takeover the business and stores were rebranded to Pepco.

From 2013 onwards, Pepco began to expand into other European markets:


 * 2013 – opened stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
 * 2015 – opened stores in Romania and Hungary
 * 2017 – opened stores in Croatia, Slovenia and Lithuania
 * 2018 – opened stores in Latvia and Estonia
 * 2019 – opened stores in Bulgaria
 * 2020 – opened stores in Italy and Serbia
 * 2021 – opened stores in Spain and Austria
 * 2022 – opened stores in Germany, Greece and Ireland
 * 2023 – opened stores in Portugal and Bosnia and Herzegovina

In 2023, the majority (79%) shareholder of Pepco, Steinhoff International was delisted and restructured in a plan to avoid bankruptcy following years of lawsuits and heavy losses after holes in the company's accounts were exposed in December 2017. Any bankruptsy was however not expected to harm Pepco given its strong balance sheet and independent sources of finance. Following the restructure 2023 Steinhoff's shareholding was transferred to the new entity Ibex Topco B.V.

In Poundland and Dealz
Since 2023 Poundland and Dealz stores have been phasing out their own brand and previous "Pep&Co" branded products and clothing, replacing them with Pepco branded ranges. This transition was seen as a potential cause for a dip in like-for-like sales at the group in 2024

In the United Kingdom, Pepco products are marketed as being "only at Poundland".