Auchan is taking its Atac supermarket chain into the fiercely competitive Polish market in a bid to catch up with major European competitors. The French retailers' Polish subsidiary ISMS Polska said suppliers for its existing Robert supermarket chain would also supply the new Atac stores. But an Ahold spokesman questioned the wisdom of trying to expand via supermarkets: "There's no question the Polish market is responding better to hypermarkets." Hypermarkets are driving growth for Ahold and Tesco. Both reported strong sales growth but would not confirm whether their Polish operations had broken even. Tesco is planning to build 15 hypermarkets to add to the existing 10 over the next three years, while Ahold is also planning an "aggressive store opening plan". But Auchan might be wise to focus on what it does best, said one analyst: "Simply doing the same thing as everyone else may not necessarily be the best plan." A spokesman from Tesco said lingering concerns remained over whether proposals to give Polish local authorities greater powers to award planning permission for new developments would restrict the growth of foreign players. {{NEWS }}