PEPCO is coming to Brăila Plaza

PEPCO is coming to Brăila Plaza. The European clothing and home discount retailer is one of the brands at the retail park that NestPlus developed, built and will operate at Strada Industriei 17M in Brăila. Its neighbours there include Action, JYSK, Sinsay, dm, Dr. Max and TEDi. The park opens on 3 December 2026.

At Brăila Plaza, PEPCO adds to the park's fashion and homeware offer. The park is part of a commercial complex on the former Promex industrial site in the north of the city, where Kaufland and Lidl have already opened their stores. Shoppers get clothing for the whole family, home products, toys and pet supplies at low prices, in the same place as their weekly food shop. Brăila is already on the PEPCO map: the retailer has stores in the city, and the new unit, in the north of Brăila, extends the brand's presence there.

PEPCO started out in Poland. According to the group's own history, in 2003 the South African company Pepkor acquired 14 former Poundstretcher stores and launched the PEPCO brand in Poland the following year. The chain opened its 100th store in 2007, its 500th in 2014 and its 1,000th in 2016. From 2013 it expanded across Central and Eastern Europe and, from 2020, into the south and west of the continent: Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Greece and Portugal. Its 4,000th store opened in Madrid in 2025. Pepco Group has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since May 2021.

PEPCO entered Romania in March 2015, with its first stores in Bucharest, Ploiești and Câmpina; that year the network had 44 stores and 450 employees. Growth outpaced the initial plans. In October 2022, when the network had passed 400 units, Anca Sandu, Pepco's head for Southern Europe, said the company had initially estimated it would want around 250 stores in Romania. According to Forbes România (September 2025), PEPCO marked ten years on the market by opening its 500th Romanian store, in a network covering more than 100 cities with nearly 4,000 employees. The most recent dated figures, from October 2026, put the chain at more than 500 stores in Romania.

PEPCO is a discount retailer of clothing and household goods. It sells clothing for women, men, children and babies, home products, toys, learning-and-play items, pet supplies and licensed-character collections at low prices, and products can be returned within 30 days in any store. Romania has become the group's second-largest market, after Poland, and, according to Economica.net (June 2026), a reference market for testing new concepts. Local turnover passed 3 billion lei in 2025, up 5% on 2024, with around 4,000 employees on average. On 2024 data, PEPCO was the second-largest player in Romanian fashion retail, after Inditex.

The group now focuses on a single brand. Poundland was sold in June 2025, and the sale of Dealz Poland was completed in July 2026, leaving Pepco Group to run only the PEPCO chain. It has also exited fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to concentrate on clothing and home products. In its pre-close trading update of 29 September 2026, the group said it expected to end the financial year on 30 September with around 4,260 stores, after roughly 250 net openings, and with revenue above 4.5 billion euro. In CEE South, the region that includes Romania, like-for-like sales excluding FMCG rose 8.2% in the fourth quarter up to 20 September. In 2026 PEPCO entered North Macedonia, its 19th market, and in June it announced its entry into Ukraine, its 20th market, with the first store planned for October 2026. For the financial years 2027 to 2030, the group targets at least 600 new stores in Western Europe.

For Brăila Plaza, PEPCO brings a brand that shoppers in Brăila already know and a format built for everyday family shopping. Clothing, home products and toys at low prices will be in the same commercial complex as Kaufland and Lidl, so visitors can do their food shopping on the same trip.