⚠ Like-for-Like Fell to Zero Point Three PercentHigh threat
Dino Polska (DNP) — threat to the moat
The stores Dino already owns have stopped growing, and no other number about this company matters as much.
Dino's like-for-like sales growth was 4,4% in 2025, 2,2% in the first half of 2026, and 0,3% in the second quarter of 202612.
That progression matters more than any other series the company publishes. Like-for-like strips out new stores and reports what the existing estate did. At 0,3%, with Polish food price inflation running low, Dino's established shops sold approximately the same amount of groceries as a year earlier.
The company's explanation is the environment: deflation in parts of the basket and customers who became markedly more price-sensitive, which pushed it to protect volume rather than margin. The EBITDA margin fell from 7,54% to 6,98% in the quarter3, which is consistent with that account — Dino gave up price to hold traffic and largely succeeded in holding it.
The reason this is a threat to the moat rather than a bad quarter is what it implies about the format's maturity. A store network with genuine pricing power raises prices modestly in a soft year and accepts slightly lower volume. Dino did the reverse.
The cost side gave it no room to do otherwise. Employee benefits rose 21,2% in 2025 to 4 333,6 million złoty and depreciation 23,4% to 505,0 million4 — both largely fixed, both arriving whatever the like-for-like number does. A retailer holding volume by conceding price, against a cost base rising faster than sales, is squeezed from both ends at once.
The falsifier is a recovery in like-for-like without a recovery in margin. That would say the softness was cyclical. Like-for-like recovering only because margin was given away again would say the format has entered a permanently more competitive phase.
- ReportedDino's like-for-like sales growth was 4,4% in 2025, 2,2% in the first half of 2026, and 0,3% in the second quarter of 2026.Dino Polska Management Report for the first half of 2026 - 3 176 stores at 30 June 2026 (341 more than a year earlier), 86 openings in the second quarter, revenue of 9 531,4m złoty up 10,5%, like-for-like growth of 0,3% in the quarter and 2,2% for the half, and the EBITDA margin of 6,98% against 7,54% — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedDino's like-for-like sales growth was 4,4% in 2025, 2,2% in the first half of 2026, and 0,3% in the second quarter of 2026.Dino Polska Management Report for the first half of 2026 - 3 176 stores at 30 June 2026 (341 more than a year earlier), 86 openings in the second quarter, revenue of 9 531,4m złoty up 10,5%, like-for-like growth of 0,3% in the quarter and 2,2% for the half, and the EBITDA margin of 6,98% against 7,54% — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedThe EBITDA margin fell from 7,54% to 6,98% in the quarter, which is consistent with that account — Dino gave up price to hold traffic and largely succeeded in holding it.Dino Polska Management Report for the first half of 2026 - 3 176 stores at 30 June 2026 (341 more than a year earlier), 86 openings in the second quarter, revenue of 9 531,4m złoty up 10,5%, like-for-like growth of 0,3% in the quarter and 2,2% for the half, and the EBITDA margin of 6,98% against 7,54% — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedEmployee benefits rose 21,2% in 2025 to 4 333,6 million złoty and depreciation 23,4% to 505,0 million — both largely fixed, both arriving whatever the like-for-like number does.Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025 - Section 4,1-4,3, results of operations (sales revenue of 33 634,2m złoty up 14,9%, gross profit and the 23,5% gross margin, the cost lines including employee benefits up 21,2% and depreciation up 23,4%, EBITDA, and like-for-like growth of 4,4%) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗