Dive Brief:
- Cumberland Farms has opened its first convenience store in Europe under its namesake banner, a company spokesperson confirmed to C-Store Dive.
- The retailer recently remodeled this store, located near Berlin, to its primary banner, the spokesperson said.
- Even as it pursues an initial public offering in the U.S., Cumberland Farms has growth plans for Europe as well — notably in Germany, where it has over 1,100 convenience retail sites.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. is Cumberland Farms’ priority as it prepares to go public in the states, with plans to rebrand 600 to 700 c-stores to its namesake banner over the next five years, refresh 60 sites annually and expand Krispy Krunchy Chicken to 500 locations by 2030.
But the retailer also plans to expand the Cumberland Farms banner in Europe, particularly in Germany, even as it has divested many of its European assets in recent years.
As of this summer, Germany accounted for more than 60% of Cumberland Farms’ 1,779 convenience retail sites across Europe. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company outlined plans to rebrand 250 locations in Germany to the Cumberland Farms banner over the next five years.
The first of those is now open.
“This marks our first Cumberland Farms store in Europe — an exciting milestone as we continue to expand across the region, with more openings planned in the coming months,” Laurent Grobet, president of Europe at Cumberland Farms, said in a LinkedIn post last week.
Photos in Grobet’s post show that the remodeled store features a Maxi Fresh Bakery, Cumberland Farms’ proprietary bakery program that the retailer is piloting at select locations in Germany. According to the SEC filing, Cumberland Farms plans to roll out approximately 25 Maxi Fresh Bakery locations across Germany over the next five years.
