Pioneering the pan-national fish-bar, the company is hoping to follow in the footsteps of the phenomenally successful local kebab and middle-eastern food chain Sphinx, whose WSE debut is expected next year. And though the firm is behind schedule with its outlet openings, recorded unimpressive first quarter sales and has heard some doubt the feasibility of making fish popular in pork-loving Poland at all, analyst optimism is still running high.
Poles spend about a tenth as much money on eating out as their nearest 'old' EU neighbor, Germany. And while it's now worth about zł.13-14 billion, Wilbo expects the eating-out market to grow by nearly a third in value even before the end of next year. Market-watchers also wax enthusiastic about the market's great potential, particularly in the bar, pub and fast food sectors, where Wilbo's Pescabar brand is positioned. European private equity fund Enterprise Investors, for one, is putting its money where its mouth is, having invested over zł.20 million ($5 million) in one local casual dining chain over the last two years.
"We approached them because we're interested in promising companies on this market, which, looking at European norms, clearly has a lot of growth potential," says Jacek Woniak, vice president of Enterprise Investors.
Sphinx now has over 54 outlets, plans to open another 130 over the next year and a half, is raking in double digit sales growths and is planning its entry onto the bourse. Like Sphinx, Wilbo is targeting the working young and young families, initially in the larger towns of over 10,000 inhabitants. And while Sphinx cut itself a niche by taking the ordinary street kebab stall a step upmarket, Wilbo is setting out to glorify the old fish and chip shop with an exotic twist. Pescabar offers not only fast-food options, like fried fish buns and fish and chips, but also more exotic packs, such as deep fried calamari with chips, and more health conscious deals, for example, salmon with mascarpone and asparagus, with the average price of a meal pitched at around zł.15-16. The company hopes its investments in Pescabar will bring returns of 30-50 percent within a year of its launch.
But whether Wilbo will manage to repeat Sphinx's phenomenal success is another question. The company is lagging behind schedule with regard to opening outlets - instead of the five planned by April in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Warsaw, only the Gdańsk bar has so far opened. And sales have not yet, say analysts, been a resounding success.
Some point to the lack of any real fish eating tradition in Poland's meat and sausage dominated food culture, where there is also no great tradition of the fish'n'chips beloved by the British, the smoked salmon adored in the Scandinavia, or the sea-food much loved throughout the Mediterranean.
Krzystof Kłapa, press spokesman for McDonald's Polska, also has his doubts. "I wish them luck, but fish is not really popular in Poland," he says.
Although McDonald's Polska offers the fillet o'fish popular in Britain, even among so-called 'health conscious' consumers, in Kłapa's experience, fish has no chance in Poland against chicken. This is a theme reiterated by Krzystof Bagiński, manager of Sushi Love, an Australian-funded venture that distributes sushi to delicatessens and eating houses, who says, "Poland is a difficult market," adding, "Fish is always seen as second choice."
Sea-food consumption is confined to the rich, working, cosmopolitan young, Bagiński goes to on say. And though fish consumption is expected to grow in Poland, as in the rest of the EU, nobody expects this to happen fast, partly because fish products tend to be pricy and purchasing power in the country low.
Paweł Markowicz, an analyst at Beskidski Dom Maklerski, however, says he's "optmistic," and as Wilbo's share price has steadily risen ever since it announced its plans, investors seem to agree with him. Offering exotic options together with cheap fish and fries in the country's larger towns is a strategy that, in Markowicz's view, will work.
Wilbo's belated outlet opening he puts down to "technical and seasonal problems." And though he doesn't expect sales in the second quarter to pick up dramatically either, he stresses that "though development is going slower than expected, the company is on track."
Slowly but surely, he expects the opening of the planned next six shops to start bringing home, well, the bacon, as it were.
Hilary Davies
Źródło:
