In a video interview recorded at CEE Property Forum 2025 in Vienna, Dominik Uhe, Head of Investor Relationship Management at Kaufland, shares his outlook for retail trade in 2026. He discusses macroeconomic expectations, investor liquidity, expansion plans across CEE and why grocery-anchored assets continue to stand out for their resilience.
How do you see retail trade in 2026 in the region? Which countries do you think will fare best or worst?
As a Germany-rooted company with a strong footprint in CEE, we are looking quite optimistic towards 2026. What we see from our discussions with economists is a flattening of interest rates from the European Central Bank. We assume this will settle around 2%. We also see inflation stabilising, depending on the country, around 2% as well — maybe slightly higher in the more eastern parts of the region.
This environment helps to stabilise investments in the CEE markets, and overall, we see an improving curve. Nevertheless, there are still crises and macroeconomic shifts. We have political challenges around us, and we do not assume these will end very soon, so we are adapting to these new circumstances.
For us, as a grocery-anchored real estate business and part of the Kaufland grocery chain, we remain very optimistic. The asset class we operate in is highly resilient. COVID demonstrated just how resilient it is, and therefore, we see strong potential to continue growing within the CEE markets. Looking at our portfolio, Poland and Romania show the strongest growth potential.
Can you easily find liquidity to fuel that growth?
At the moment, we are testing the market through smaller forward deals, and we see strong interest from investors — domestic, European and also American investors coming into the CEE region. They are attracted by the resilience of the market and by the core product we offer. Grocery-based retail is very stable, and as a result, financing is not a major issue for us.
Are you planning to expand to further countries in the CEE region?
We are continuously observing the CEE region and looking at markets where we are not currently present. At the moment, grocery companies are quite strong across all markets. There is no country that is simply waiting for Kaufland to enter, but there may be a time and a market that fits properly with our strategy.
And you’re not planning any exits?
We are present in eight countries, rooted in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and also Moldova. Moldova is not part of the EU, but when we entered these markets more than 25 years ago, several of them were not EU members either, so this is not a difficulty for us.
We know how to manage these environments, and there are absolutely no plans to exit any country.
