Discount chain Biedronka becomes the largest employer in Poland

Discount chain Biedronka, owned by Portuguese conglomerate Jeronimo Martins, has become Poland’s largest employer, overtaking the longstanding leader, Poczta Polska, the state post office.

Biedronka – whose name means “ladybird” in Polish – currently employs over 80,000 people, reports retail service Wiadomości Handlowe. That is up from just over 77,000 a year ago and 73,000 in 2020.

Around 90% of its staff work in the chain’s stores, of which there were 3,395 at the end of 2022. A further 6,000 work in the distribution centres and almost 3,000 in offices. The firm has announced plans to further expand its network this year.

Biedronka, which was founded in 1995 and purchased by Jeronimo Martins two years later, has long been Poland’s largest private employer. But for years Poczta Polska has been the largest employer overall, notes Wiadomości Handlowe.

That has now changed, with the post office forced to slash jobs in recent years as part of cost-cutting measures. In 2019, employment in the entire Poczta Polska group, which also includes banking services, exceeded 80,000 people. By the end of 2021, average annual (full-time equivalent) employment was 71,900.

One state-owned firm that has been expanding its workforce is energy giant PKN Orlen, which had 65,000 employees last year (60,000 of them in Poland). That was almost triple the figure of 22,300 in 2019.

Over that period, Orlen has completed a series of mergers, including the acquisitions of state-owned rivals Lotos and PGNiG.

Main photo credit: Biedronka press pack

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.