Fast restaurants are opening up everywhere in Poland. Of course, McDonald's dominates, with over 600 outlets. But other chains are also popular – KFC, Burger King, Popeyes, Max Premium Burgers, Wendy's will soon enter Poland… Large kebab chains are also growing, often founded by Polish entrepreneurs.
In this context, the problems of North Food, the operator of the North Fish chain, may be surprising. It seems that the brand had everything to succeed. The company appeared on the market in 2002. At that time, the QSR (Quick-Service Restaurant) market began to develop, driven by the successes of McDonald's and KFC. At the same time, North Fish offered slightly “lighter” dishes, mainly fish. In addition, the network is controlled by Michał Sołowow, the richest Pole on the Forbes list, who has created more than one business empire.
The rest of the article is below the video:
The entrepreneur's representatives do not want to comment on the reports of “Gazeta Wyborcza” for now.
Look: North Fish restaurants threatened with liquidation. The court makes a decision
Why didn't North Fish conquer Poland?
The creators of the Polish network were clearly inspired by the German format Nordsee. This company has about 400 points, mainly in its homeland, but it also tried to conquer Poland, but it also failed.
— It is not a coincidence that fast fish restaurants failed on our market. Fish is expensive and not as filling as burgers or kebabs. To put it simply, a QSR customer in Poland just wants to eat – and not spend a fortune – tells us one of the people from the catering industry who prefers to remain anonymous.
Jakub Tepper, a well-known entrepreneur from the catering industry, raised another issue in his entry on X. “North Fish, in my opinion, never developed a brand. It had an average, mediocre, but quite acceptable product, but there was no desire for it,” he wrote.
It must be admitted that the Polish concept had a difficult time. He had to fight the marketing machines of chains such as McDonald's, KFC and, recently, the Swedish chain Max Premium Burgers. Not that it hasn't been tried. It is clear that the North Fish authorities tried to follow the hottest trends.
When McDonald's conquered Poland with “Drwal”, Sołowow's company introduced… “Rybak's Burger”. Another time, for example, the North Fish chain introduced burgers in… blue buns. But these marketing efforts did not bring much results. Dataplace.ai data shows that after the debut of “Drwal”, McDonald's market share increased by over 18%. They lost their rivals – including KFC and Max Burgers, but North Fish actually did not take part in this competition.
“Rybak” did not repeat the success of “Drwal”
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North Fish
Recently, the fast food market has gained another powerful player – Żabka. The company offers hot dishes in all of its several thousand stores. points. And Żabki are everywhere – in housing estates, railway stations, on highways… It's no wonder that the chain's hog dogs and pizzas sell like hot cakes.
Look: This is how pizza is sold at Żabka. The company provides data
The North Fish chain focused on galleries
Meanwhile, the North Fish chain was actually only available in shopping malls. These remain popular, but other chains are experimenting much more with formats and trying to be closer to the customer. Perhaps Michał Sołowow, who himself invested in shopping malls, was convinced that he would find customers there. But recent, post-pandemic times have changed a lot – and North Fish hasn't necessarily adapted to it.
— The great success of sushi in Poland has shown that there is room for fish restaurants on our market. But in the “fast” format it just doesn't work. Although this may change, the trend for lighter dishes is gaining popularity. Who knows, maybe North Fish, if he manages to survive this turmoil, will have his time again — one of our industry interlocutors tells us. But – as our interlocutors say – the company would have to deal with some major problems to survive. This is the lack of a recognizable brand, Poles' distance from fish – and excessive dependence on shopping malls.
Author: Mateusz Madejski, journalist of Business Insider Polska
