French supermarket Carrefour is considering expanding its Polish operations by entering the petrol forecourt shop sector, PetrolPlaza has reported.
Carrefour operates across Europe, traditionally selling its goods in large hypermarkets. The retailer has an extensive hypermarket network in Poland, but last year it revealed plans to diversify its store strategy by opening smaller convenience outlets.
Taking over forecourt shops at service stations fits in with that strategy and, to date, it is an underdeveloped concept in the Polish market. Currently, Dutch firm Ahold is the only supermarket firm operating shops on Polish forecourts.
According to PetrolPlaza, Carrefour is in negotiations with a number of fuel retailers in Poland. However, its most developed negotiations are believed to be with British company BP, which runs around 300 service stations in the central European country.