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Jerónimo Martins, SGPS, S.A.
Jerónimo Martins runs low-cost grocery store chains in Portugal, Poland, and Colombia, selling everyday food and household goods to millions of shoppers.
Jerónimo Martins is a grocery store company. That's the whole idea, and it's a very good idea. It runs discount supermarkets in three countries — Portugal, Poland, and Colombia — where ordinary people go to buy bread, milk, meat, cleaning products, and everything else a household needs each week. The company doesn't try to be fancy. It tries to be cheap, fast, and reliable, so shoppers come back again and again.
In Portugal, its main chain is Pingo Doce, a supermarket most Portuguese families know well. In Poland, it runs Biedronka, which is the country's biggest grocery chain — a discount brand with thousands of small stores and its own brands on the shelves. In Colombia, it operates Ara, a similar low-cost format that has been growing store by store. The company also runs a wholesale cash-and-carry business and a small chain of health and beauty stores, but food retail is where almost all the money comes from. How does it make money? It buys food in enormous volumes directly from producers and manufacturers, which lets it negotiate low prices. It then sells those goods at thin margins — a few cents on each item — and tries to make up for it with huge numbers of customers. Private-label products, made under the store's own name, matter a lot here: they're usually cheaper for shoppers and more profitable for the company. The formula works only if the stores are busy and costs stay tight, which is why Biedronka's small, no-frills outlets are packed day after day.
Two things make Jerónimo Martins worth understanding. First, most of its profit comes from Poland, not Portugal, even though it's a Portuguese company headquartered in Lisbon. That makes it exposed to Polish wages, consumer spending, and competition from other discounters. Second, the Colombian business is a long-term bet. It's been expanding rapidly but has taken years to become consistently profitable, and it competes against entrenched local chains. Shares of the company trade in Lisbon, and it pays out a steady dividend — a signal that it sees itself as a mature, cash-generating retailer rather than a growth story.
Saved answer · last researched 14 Nov 2026