Underwear chain stores in Poland only in big cities

Wpis dostępny jest także w języku: polski

There are currently almost 800 specialist underwear stores in Poland. Most of them are shops of the four largest retailers on the Polish market (Ferax, Calz Polska, Triumph International, Esotiq & Henderson). These stores are located in larger cities. Interestingly, as many as 207 of them are located in the 10 largest cities in Poland.

The nine largest specialistic players had almost 800 shops in Poland at the end of 2020. Of these, the majority are shops of the market’s four largest retailers Ferax (operator of the Gatta chain), Calz Polska (Calzedonia, Intimissimi and Tezenis), Triumph International (Triumph, Sloggi) and Esotiq & Henderson.

At the end of 2020, the five largest lingerie chains in Poland had a total of 765 shops, according to PMR calculations. For comparison, only the clothing market leader LPP, the operator of Reserved, Mohito, Sinsay, Cropp and House chains, had 852 stores, while the footwear market leader CCC had 477 stores.

Underwear stores of the five largest chains in Poland, by county, December 2020

Chain underwear stores are located in 209 out of 380 counties in Poland. These are mainly counties near large cities in Poland. These shops are located mainly in larger cities. Interestingly, in the 10 largest Polish cities (in terms of population) there are 256 stores or 33% of all the four largest players. Warsaw has the largest number of such shops – 74. The next largest cities in terms of the number of lingerie shops are Kraków – 31 and Wroclaw (30) and Poznan with 29 shops (taking into account the 10 largest chains).

In turn, 292 of the 765 shops of the five largest chains are located in the 20 largest cities in Poland (in terms of population) – 38%. Chain shops are present in 209 out of 380 counties in Poland. These are mainly cities with county rights and counties next to large cities in Poland.

Esotiq operates the largest number of underwear stores in Poland – 259 locations, of which 49 are located in the 20 largest Polish cities. It is the brand with the strongest presence in smaller towns, with only 19% of its shops located in the 20 largest cities in Poland. At the other extreme is the Calzedonia brand, 66% of whose shops are located in the largest cities – 48 out of 73 shops in Poland.

Underwear stores of the five largest chains in Poland, December 2020

High competition among non-specialist outlets

The Polish underwear market is highly competitive. In addition to shops specialising in the sale of lingerie, there are also clothing chains operating in this segment which include lingerie in their range of products. According to PMR data, among the 10 largest players by revenue, three chains do not specialise in selling underwear. Their share among the largest players oscillates around 1/3.

Which is also due to the poorer accessibility to these shops in smaller towns, and the reluctance to buy underwear online. Although all the major players have online shops, this channel is not popular among consumers for lingerie shopping. Due to the characteristics of such products, the percentage of people buying online is lower than in the case of clothing and footwear. According to the PMR study, as many as three quarters of respondents do most or almost all of their underwear shopping in brick-and-mortal outlets.

According to Esotiq & Henderson, in Q3 2020 14% of the retailer’s revenue was from the online shop, by comparison LPP generated 18% of its revenue from the online channel in the same time period, while at VRG these shares were 17-42% (depending on the brand).

More information about underwear market in Poland in PMR report: Handel detaliczny bielizną w Polsce 2020. Analiza rynku i prognozy rozwoju na lata 2020-2025.