We endeavour to promote the work-life balance of our employees by investing in solutions that give them more flexibility and predictable working hours. These measures help improve people’s well-being while enabling teams to respond more effectively to the pressures of a highly demanding sector. All employees are entitled to family leave, parental leave, and other personal leaves.
In Portugal, Pingo Doce has an hour’s bank in place, a solution that allows employees to better manage time off as it suits them, used by 21,449 employees in 2025. The Company also has a digital scheduling tool that ensures fair shift planning and distribution, promoting predictability and team stability, while ensuring compliance with all legal rules and internal principles of fairness. This tool is implemented in 413 stores and covers 25,604 employees.
In Poland, Biedronka’ s Tikrow platform enables an immediate response to temporary work needs in stores, minimising the impact of unforeseen absenteeism and ensuring continuity of customer service. In 2025, this solution helped meet 80,903 immediate needs.
In Portugal, to facilitate the family management of employees, we have three daycare centres (one at the Recheio store in Braga and the others at the Azambuja and Alfena distribution centres), which took care of 161 children of employees in 2025.
The Group’s Flexible Working Policy offers adjustable start and end times and remote working options, covering 6,948 employees in compatible roles.
Physical, mental and social well-being
As part of our commitment to employee well-being, we provide various initiatives that promote physical, mental and social health, recognising their importance for motivation, productivity and talent retention. Beyond the programmes and initiatives available for employees, in Portugal through the Jerónimo Martins Foundation, we invested more than 8.6 million euros in these types of measures in 2025.
In Portugal, Jerónimo Martins Group offers general medicine, sleep, smart-ageing, psychology, and nutrition appointments, as well as nursing services, alternative therapies, and physiotherapy. A total of 1,522 employees used those services in 2025. A Wellness Centre is also available to office employees, which includes a gym, hairdresser, and dermo-aesthetic services. In 2025, the Wellness Centre received the Social Sports Project Award (an initiative from Inatel Foundation) in recognition of its contribution to promoting well-being and healthy habits in the workplace.
Distribution centre employees have access to services of physical rehabilitation, offered at the Azambuja and Alfena centers, such as physiotherapy, gym, nutrition, general medicine, podiatry appointments and nursing. These centres help prevent and treat physical illnesses and musculoskeletal injuries. In 2025, 926 employees used these rehabilitation centres.
In Poland, the “Razem zadbajmy o zdrowie” (Let’s take care of our health together) programme offers Biedronka employees the chance to undergo a range of medical examinations with a market value of over 600 złoty (around 140 euros), including vitamin, hormone, diabetes and cancer screening tests (allowing for the testing of tumour markers). The programme also includes analysis of test results by a specialist and ultrasound scans for office and distribution centre employees. In 2025, a total of 30,717 employees and 13,760 family members benefited from this programme, in an investment of over 1.2 million euros. Hebe also supports its employees with regular check-ups and medical care. To encourage physical exercise, both Biedronka and Hebe offer all employees a sports card that gives them access to more than 5,000 facilities across the country, representing an investment of 255,000 euros.
Biedronka and Hebe continued to invest in the Mindgram platform, which saw 10,296 active employees registered in 2025. The platform is available free of charge to all employees and their families, offering three types of support:
educational support – providing articles, webinars and podcasts on mental health, career development and personal finance;
appointments – psychological support provided in unlimited online sessions;
chat room – help from professionals in psychology, law, finance, and other fields, also available to family members.
Biedronka also offers the “Spokojna Głowa” (Calm Your Mind) programme, sharing digital content on motivation, stress management, meditation and emotional well-being.
In 2025, Biedronka’s integrated approach to the physical, mental and social health of employees and their families was distinguished by the Dobrostar Wellbeing Awards1, and the “Razem zadbajmy o zdrowie” (Let’s take care of health together) programme was recognised by the CSR Poland Awards2.
To support social well-being, the Companies implemented several initiatives aimed at strengthening team spirit and fostering a positive working environment. In 2025, several projects were enhanced to make a more meaningful impact:
In Portugal, the communities of interest Crazy about Running and Crazy about Padel recorded 643 participations. Well-being activities were also promoted at 44 meetings;
Trips aboard the Santa Maria Manuela were organised for 70 employees from the Holding, Pingo Doce and Recheio, offering unique opportunities for social engagement and strengthening team spirit;
Recheio launched a new edition of “Momentos em Cheio” (Enriching Moments), a month dedicated to the well-being and a sense of belonging of its teams, in which 1,365 employees participated;
Biedronka once again organised meetings and gatherings between operations teams, which were attended by 84,415 employees;
As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, Biedronka launched contests for employees, receiving 58,339 entries;
Ara and Pingo Doce’s Meal Solutions again organised Wellbeing Weeks promoting a variety of well-being activities, focusing in particular on physical and mental health. More than 1,200 employees took part in at least one activity.
1 The Dobrostart competition recognises companies that implement outstanding solutions to support employee well-being.
2 The CSR Poland Awards is a competition that recognises projects implemented by companies operating in Poland in four categories: Community Support Projects, Volunteering, Employee Well-being and CSR Leader.