The Land Under the StoreNarrow moat
Dino Polska (DNP) — moat facet
Dino owns the freeholds, which is why no landlord can ever reprice it and why shareholders have never seen a dividend.
Most retailers rent. Dino builds, and keeps the freehold.
The company states plainly that it owns most of the real properties on which its stores are located, leasing only some from third parties and from other companies inside the group1. The consequence is on the balance sheet: property, plant and equipment of 7 765,5 million złoty at the end of 2025, up 22,8% in twelve months, inside total non-current assets of 8 801,4 million2. Against that, intangible assets are 33,3 million. This is a business made almost entirely of land, buildings, refrigeration and lorries.
The scale of the commitment is easiest to see in the line that measures what Dino did not do. IFRS 16 puts every leased property on the balance sheet as a right-of-use asset, and Dino's right-of-use assets come to 217,0 million złoty — 2,8% of the owned property beside them — carrying lease liabilities of 110,7 million3. A grocery chain of this size would normally have those two numbers the other way round.
That choice buys three things. Rent never rises, which matters in a format where the rent line would otherwise be a large share of a thin operating margin. No landlord can decline to renew a shop that has just spent five years becoming the only grocer in its town. And the asset appreciates while the lease of a competitor merely expires.
It costs one thing, and the cost is total. A retailer that leases can open a hundred stores with working capital; a retailer that builds must find the whole cost of each site up front. Dino spent 2 129,3 million złoty of capital expenditure in 20254 and 7,7 billion złoty over five years, and it paid for all of it out of retained profit — no dividend has ever been paid, and the board again proposed transferring the 2025 result to supplementary capital5.
So the property strategy and the dividend policy are the same decision seen from two sides. An investor who wants Dino to distribute cash is asking it to stop building, because that is the only place the cash goes.
Watch capital expenditure against operating cash flow. While the first is comfortably covered by the second, the model is self-financing and the absence of a dividend is a choice. If the gap closes — or if the store count keeps rising while capital expenditure per store rises faster — the model has started to need outside money, and that changes what the ownership of the land is worth.
Dino still owns most of its freeholds and still pays no dividend. The policy has not moved in nine years and there is no sign it is about to.
Against intangibles of 33,3m. This is a company made of land, buildings and refrigeration, and the asset base grew half again as fast as revenue in 2025 — the arithmetic behind the falling return.
Source: Dino Polska Group consolidated financial statements for 2025 ↗- ReportedThe company states plainly that it owns most of the real properties on which its stores are located, leasing only some from third parties and from other companies inside the group.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 ↗
- ReportedThe consequence is on the balance sheet: property, plant and equipment of 7 765,5 million złoty at the end of 2025, up 22,8% in twelve months, inside total non-current assets of 8 801,4 million.Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025 - letter from the Management Board and financial highlights (the ten-year series of store counts, sales area rising from 238 to 1 200 thousand square metres, headcount, and the summary income statement and balance sheet) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedIFRS 16 puts every leased property on the balance sheet as a right-of-use asset, and Dino's right-of-use assets come to 217,0 million złoty — 2,8% of the owned property beside them — carrying lease liabilities of 110,7 million.Dino Polska Group consolidated financial statements for 2025 - income statement, balance sheet and notes (revenue split between goods and own production, the segment note, property plant and equipment of 7 765,5m złoty, intangibles, related-party transactions, impairment testing by cash-generating unit, and the Zawiercie distribution centre approved after the reporting date) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedDino spent 2 129,3 million złoty of capital expenditure in 2025 and 7,7 billion złoty over five years, and it paid for all of it out of retained profit — no dividend has ever been paid, and the board again proposed transferring the 2025...Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025 - Sections 4,4-4,10, capital expenditure, financing and dividend policy (capital expenditure of 2 129,3m złoty up 38%, 7,7bn reinvested over five years, operating cash flow of 2 697,4m, negative net debt of 199,5m, bank loans, and the decision not to recommend a dividend) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedDino spent 2 129,3 million złoty of capital expenditure in 2025 and 7,7 billion złoty over five years, and it paid for all of it out of retained profit — no dividend has ever been paid, and the board again proposed transferring the 2025...Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025 - Sections 4,4-4,10, capital expenditure, financing and dividend policy (capital expenditure of 2 129,3m złoty up 38%, 7,7bn reinvested over five years, operating cash flow of 2 697,4m, negative net debt of 199,5m, bank loans, and the decision not to recommend a dividend) — FY2025 · publ. March 2026 · source ↗
- Dino Polska Management Board's Activity Report for 2025
- Dino Polska Group consolidated financial statements for 2025