During the Economic Forum in Karpacz, Żabka Polska presented a new kind of shop – Eko Smart, combining sustainable solutions with new technological developments. The first such shop will be opened in Poznań, with 3 more to follow.

Żabka Eko Smart continues and combines the projects that the company has been implementing since 2020, when the first shop powered by 100% green energy was launched in Warsaw. 

The next step was the opening of Żabka Smart in Poznań in April 2022 - a testing ground for technological solutions facilitating the work of franchisees and their employees.

"Żabka Eko Smart is teeming with innovative technological solutions based on AI, which cooperate and communicate with the shop assistants, and perform certain actions on site. Running this kind of shop is highly intuitive and productive for franchisees," said Adam Manikowski, Vice President & Managing Director.

"Żabka has had an ESG strategy for a few years already. As part of its 4th pillar, Green Planet, we focus mainly on 2 areas: decarbonisation and circularity.  To decarbonise our value chain we are using e.g. green energy, green transport and innovative shop solutions cutting emissions. Equally important is working towards achieving a circular economy."  said Anna Grabowska, VP of the Management Board for Consumer Strategies.

Żabka introduced new solutions across the chain, which led to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of over 1300 tonnes of CO₂ and cut down energy consumption by nearly 261 MWh. "Our HQ's, our logistics centres and 50% of shops are supplied with green energy. We are also looking for solutions like EKOmaty - machines collecting used bottles and cans which we re-cycle, producing all bottles for our brands, achieving 33% smaller carbon footprint," said Grabowska.

Żabka Eko Smart in Poznań utilises one of the world's first perovskite installations - this revolutionary technology powers the price labels and have been incorporated into the blinds. The shop is equipped with remote lighting control systems and smart shop control solutions, the coffee machine area is lined with tiles made of coffee grounds and husks and the closed refrigerators insulated with hemp wool mats and glycol shelf coolers installed in the freezer cabinets.  "We regard this format as a lab which will serve as the basis for select solutions to be implemented across the chain" – said Manikowski.