The Counter Is the Reason to Choose the ShopNarrow moat

Dino Polska (DNP) — moat facet

Packaged groceries are identical everywhere; fresh food is where the shop gets chosen, and it is the part Dino does not buy in.

Packaged groceries are the same in every shop. Fresh food is not, and that is where the choice gets made.

The 4 categories Dino names as driving like-for-likeFruit and vegetables — bought inBread — bought inDairy — bought inMeat and cold cuts — 3 945m zł made in-houseAll four are fresh. Only the fourth is made by a business Dino owns outright.
Packaged groceries are identical in every shop. Fresh is where the choice gets made.

Dino's own account of what drove like-for-like sales growth of 4,4% in 2025 names the fresh categories first: fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy, and the fresh meat and cold cuts produced by Agro-Rydzyna1. In a market where Biedronka holds roughly a quarter of grocery spending on price and range, the fresh counter is the part of the offer a discounter finds hardest to match at a small scale.

Owning the production changes what Dino can do there. It sets its own specification, controls the cutting, and can put a counter with served fresh meat into a 400-square-metre store — an operating decision most small-format grocers avoid because the waste risk and the supply complexity are high when the product comes from a third party.

The economics are also better than they look. Products manufactured in-house are 11,7% of revenue2, and Dino captures the processing margin as well as the retail margin on every złoty of it. The category behind it is bigger still: fresh food is 41% of sales, against 40% in each of the two prior years, and it reaches the stores daily3 — in a 400-square-metre shop carrying only about five thousand items4, that is the largest single thing on the shelf.

The measure is whether fresh keeps appearing in the company's own explanation of like-for-like. When Dino stops naming it as a driver, the differentiator has stopped differentiating.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

Dino still names fresh — fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy and Agro-Rydzyna meat — as what drove like-for-like. The differentiator is intact even as the growth it drives shrinks.

The number that tests this moat
Moat Explorer calc
Gross margin
23,5% in 2025

Fresh food and own-made meat are where Dino can earn more than on packaged goods sold everywhere. A falling gross margin would say the counter no longer lets it charge for the choice.

How it's calculated: Gross profit of PLN 7 911 077 thousand divided by revenue of PLN 33 634 155 thousand for 2025.
Source: Dino Polska Group consolidated financial statements for 2025 ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
The Cheapest Meat Wins in a Price-Sensitive Year
Owning the plant lowers the cost of competing on price. It does not excuse Dino from competing on price.
References
  1. ReportedDino's own account of what drove like-for-like sales growth of 4,4% in 2025 names the fresh categories first: fruit and vegetables, bread, dairy, and the fresh meat and cold cuts produced by Agro-Rydzyna.
    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 ↗
  2. Moat Explorer calcProducts manufactured in-house are 11,7% of revenue, and Dino captures the processing margin as well as the retail margin on every złoty of it.
    Moat Explorer calculation - arithmetic on figures reported in Dino's own filings: gross margin (7 911 077 over 33 634 155), net margin for each year from 2017 to 2025, revenue per store (33 634 155 thousand złoty over roughly 3 000 stores), own production as a share of revenue (3 945 315 over 33 634 155), the share of plant output sold internally (3 945 315 less 264 656), selling costs as a share of revenue (5 576 262 over 33 634 155), and stores per distribution centre — FY2017-FY2025 · publ. September 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe category behind it is bigger still: fresh food is 41% of sales, against 40% in each of the two prior years, and it reaches the stores daily — in a 400-square-metre shop carrying only about five thousand items, that is the largest...
    Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025 - Section 3,1, business profile (the standardised 400 m2 store format carrying roughly 5 000 stock keeping units, fresh food at 41% of sales delivered daily, the small-town and edge-of-town siting, the twelve distribution centres, and the ownership of most store real estate) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedThe category behind it is bigger still: fresh food is 41% of sales, against 40% in each of the two prior years, and it reaches the stores daily — in a 400-square-metre shop carrying only about five thousand items, that is the largest...
    Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025 - Section 3,1, business profile (the standardised 400 m2 store format carrying roughly 5 000 stock keeping units, fresh food at 41% of sales delivered daily, the small-town and edge-of-town siting, the twelve distribution centres, and the ownership of most store real estate) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026