Tomasz Biernacki has become, according to “Wprost”, the richest Pole in 2022. He is a mysterious billionaire about whom little is known, but the business that brought him his fortune is known throughout Poland. It is the chain of Dino Polska shops that in some respects has already overtaken Lidl and many other competitors.
The businessman owns a 51 per cent stake in Dino, valued at PLN 15 billion. This places Biernacki in the first thousand of the richest people in the world.
Coming back to the ranking, however, the top 100 richest Poles of “Wprost” are:
1. Tomasz Biernacki – PLN 15.3 billion
2. Michał Sołowow – PLN 11 billion
3. Zygmunt Solorz – PLN 10 billion
4. Dominika Kulczyk – PLN 8.5 billion
5. Sebastian Kulczyk – PLN 7 billion
6. Jerzy Starak – PLN 6 billion
7. Łukasz Nosek – PLN 5 billion
8. Zbigniew and Mateusz Juroszkowie – PLN 5 billion
9. Paweł Marchewka – PLN 4.2 billion
10. Wiesław Wawrzyniak with family – PLN 4.1 billion (debut in the ranking)
What is important, Biernacki reached the top of the ranking only five years after his debut on the list. His fortune consists mainly of shares in Dino Polska – he owns 51 per cent of the company, which debuted on the Polish stock exchange in April 2017. Dino Polska shares have risen from PLN 39 to the current PLN 317. Along with the price, the company’s market value has soared.
Shortly after going public, Dino’s capitalization was about 3.5 billion PLN. Just five years later Biernacki’s company was worth almost 10 times more – in July 2021 it exceeded PLN 30 billion. Currently, it is worth PLN 31.12 bln, which makes Dino the third largest company on the Polish stock exchange – right after PKO BP (PLN 36 bln) and PGNiG (PLN 33 bln).
Source: Press materials
Such share price increases are not surprising when looking at the development of Dino Polska. In 2021 the chain was opening a new shop almost every day, surpassing the number of over 1.7 thousand outlets. Currently, it has 1,880 shops, almost twice as many as the German chain – Lidl. Still, Dino is far behind its main competitor, Biedronka, which has more than 3,000 outlets. Annually, Dino opens even more than 300 shops – such as in 2021.
The history of Dino dates back to 1999, when Tomasz Biernacki, a businessman, opened the first shop under the Dino Supermarket brand. As part of the expansion strategy and the creation of new shops, the first distribution centre was built in Krotoszyn in 2002. In 2003, Tomasz Biernacki acquired a majority stake in Agro-Rydzyn, a company owning a meat processing plant that had supplied Dino shops with fresh meat since their inception. In 2017. Dino Polska made its stock market debut, thus putting Biernacki on the list of Polish billionaires.
In 2021, Biernacki’s company reported PLN 13.36 billion in revenue and a net profit of PLN 805 million. For a long time, its founder does not pay himself a salary, which used to be around PLN 80 thousand, and earns only on the rise in the company’s share price.