UK conglomerate Tesco and Wal-Mart are facing expansion trouble in East Europe. Data to be released by management consultants AT Kearney on Monday will show that the markets in Poland, Russia and Czech Republic are saturated. The report says “with new players entering this region and existing players expanding, market saturation is tugging many traditional eastern European countries down the index.
The Czech Republic, for example dropped and Poland fell out of the top 30 all together. “Poland is now saturated,” Tesco’s Mike Sage said These markets are definitely not saturated. They are young, emerging markets and you need to take a medium to long term view and we know that when we open stores there is a big demand. We will continue with expansion as planned.