British discounters target European mainland

Supermarket and convenience store chains need to get ready for the arrival of (very) cheap discount chains from the British market, like Poundland and B&M who are both ready to cross the Channel.

Already arrived in Spain and Germany

“Discounters like Action, Big Bazar and Op=Op are just the start of what is to come. The United States and the United Kingdom are both crawling with fast-growing, sometimes even listed, discount chains that are a nuisance to supermarkets and convenience stores. These are the discounters that will arrive on European shores soon”, Dutch paper FD warns.

There are plenty of (incredibly) cheap (non) food chains in Great Britain: Primark, Aldi and Lidl (who are shaking the classic British retail to its core) are joined by 9 other chains who barely require a pound (or exactly that) to buy things like shampoo, cleaning material, garden articles or chocolate. B&M, Poundland, 99p, Poundworld, Poundstretcher, Home Bargains and Wilko already have thousands of stores and keep opening new ones.

Particularly Poundland and B&M are very eager to move to Europe, the business paper said. “These two chains consider Europe to be vacant terrain. Some countries do not have a decent discount channel at all, while the only international discount chains with any ambition are Tedi and Action.”

Poundland already opened Dealz stores in Spain, while B&M launched Ja Woll stores in Germany. Therefore, it is not a question of whether they will come to the Low Countries, but when they will do so. Major chains can consider this a warning.