Hungarian food-rescue startup Munch has opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Szeged, extending a business model that began as a digital marketplace into physical retail.
The store product range consists mainly of dry groceries, sweets, soft drinks and bakery products, alongside some fruit and vegetables. Munch said prices are significantly below those typically found in conventional retail chains, as is already planning additional physical stores in Hungary.
Munch was founded in 2020 by Zwecker Bence, Wettstein Albert, Zsoldos Botond and Perepelica Kirill as a platform allowing restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets and other food businesses to sell surplus food that would otherwise risk being discarded.
Szeged became the first Hungarian city outside the capital where Munch expanded, in January 2021. It subsequently developed into one of the platform’s strongest regional markets. By 2024, users in Szeged had rescued more than 120,000 food packages representing over 180 tonnes of food, while more than 100 local businesses had worked with the platform.
More than 5 million app downloads across four markets
Munch now operates in Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Romania and said earlier this year that its services had surpassed 5 million app downloads across its markets. The Hungarian platform currently works with more than 2,000 partners nationally, while consumers using its traditional marketplace can typically purchase surplus food at discounts of around 40-70%.
