Kraków based furniture distributor Abra has announced that it hopes to open at least eight new outlets in the next eight months.
New stores will open in Łódź and Częstochowa in March, with a Poznań outlet coming on line by early June, Pabianice in July and Warsaw, Bytom, Bydgoszcz and Toruń by the end of August. The company claims that these eight stores are a minimum.
Abra currently has twenty two sales points and hopes to increase this to around one hundred in the next five years.
In many countries furniture is sold by independent retailers, representing a variety of producers. In Poland this was not the case until recently. Previously furniture manufacturers were forced to open their own stores due to the lack of retailers on the market.
Other companies enjoying success on the Polish market and looking forward to further expansion include the Swedish Ikea and German Walther Mobel.
The retail network is to be built up from the companies own reserves and current business activities. In November, Abraís main shareholder, the South African JD Group increased the companyís capital by PLN11.3m to take a ninety percent stake in it. The South Africans already own several retail chains in various European countries.
Abra is hoping to turn a profit of at least PLN115m when itís financial year ends in August. In the previous financial year it noted PLN70m in turnover although it failed to make a profit.