Internationalization of the Grocery Retail Market in Poland (Internacjonalizacja handlu detalicznego produktow spozywczych w Polsce)

The paper presents the internationalization processes in the grocery retail market in Poland in 1990–2015. The study was conducted on the basis of the analysis of secondary data which allowed identifying foreign entities operating in this market and describing key dimensions of their strategy. The basic conclusions of the analysis are the following: (1) market dominance of foreign companies in the grocery retail market – their market share was above 50%; (2) the breakthrough year in the process of internationalization was 2001; (3) the most common entry strategy was greenfield direct investment; (4) foreign investors came from highly developed European countries; (5) foreign companies operate on the basis of large-format stores (supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount stores).