Košík Bulgaria Expansion

Context

Košík partnered with Metro to expand e-grocery internationally. Bulgaria was the first market after upfront analysis. Kolichka was the customer-facing brand.

Problem

The company's first international launch had to work operationally and commercially - Metro integration on the ground, local product and ops, and a live store - with no playbook from prior countries.

My role

I started on Metro operations integration, then owned the launch end to end as team changes consolidated responsibility on one track.

Constraints

• First expansion: High ambiguity, high visibility, no template to copy.
• Physical + digital: Warehouses, vans, and systems had to work together, not just a web launch.
• Cross-border: EU rules helped, but language, addresses, and partner culture still bit us (Cyrillic, local address formats, on-site coordination during COVID).

What I did

• Led Metro on-site integration: data flows and shared infrastructure on Metro sites.
• Coordinated product, operations, and business workstreams as scope grew to full launch ownership.
• Kept delivery aligned to time and budget commitments leadership had made.

Key decisions

• Operations-first credibility: Prove the Metro plug-in before scaling marketing promises.
• End-to-end ownership when gaps appeared: One accountable lead rather than handoffs between integration and "launch PM."

Result

Kolichka launched on time and on budget - Košík's first international market live with Metro. The partnership continued into further countries.

What this shows

This project is a good example of the kind of work I do best: taking a messy cross-functional launch (partners, ops, product, new country) and turning it into a shipped system customers could actually use.