Six months after announcing its arrival in Portugal in 2023, Pepco – rival of Primark and Ikea – plans to “open more than 30 stores in its first year” in the Portuguese market.

The group operates more than 4,000 shops in 18 European countries, including in Spain, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy, having opened 105 spaces in the last three months.

Barrie Ruiz, the group's operations manager for Portugal and Spain, told Jornal de Negócios that the intention of the brand is to settle in “Coimbra, Albufeira, Olhão, Elvas and Lisbon until the end of the summer of 2023”. Initially, the brand advanced that it would also open in Porto, but the northern city ended up being left out of the new list. However, Ruiz ensures that Porto remains “a clear bet”, where he will open an establishment “before October 2023”.

In the first store of the brand, which should open in Coimbra “in mid-May”, “more than 13 employees will be employed”. “This will be bigger than our usual stores – it will have a coverage area of 800 square meters”, highlighted the operations manager. The store will be “a Pepco Plus”, a space that offers three categories of products: general merchandising, clothing, and FMCG items (such as personal hygiene, cleaning and laundry products, snacks, and pet categories), he added.