Naivas plans to close the financial year with 90 stores as it races to become Kenya's first store chain to achieve the milestone and hit a million-dollar in business value.
The retailer has been on an expansion spree since Proparco, a French sovereign wealth fund acquired a Sh3.8 billion stake in early September.
The injection of private equity has brought life to the local retail sector in general with Naivas now opening its 88th store in Ruai, with two more lined up ahead of Christmas.
The injection of funds has also seen an aggressive QuickMart which has opened 10 branches in the last 10 months.
“This expansion targets to bring our unique offering of freshness, quality, and affordability to all our customers. With every new opening we ensure that the store set-up, layout, and catalogue meet shopper needs,” Willy Kimani, Naivas Chief Commercial Officer told The Star.
After a tough business environment at the advent of Covid-19, Kenya Retail Sector Report 2022 shows that there has been a renewed appetite by Kenyan retail outlets to grow their operations.
The two remaining stores in the pipeline will be opened towards the end of this week along Ojijo Road in Nairobi's Parklands.
“We firmly believe in the sustainability of not just our business but also the communities we serve and that is why we have firmly entrenched environmental, safety and governance practices embedded throughout our business operations,” added Kimani.
The Local retail sector has been presenting a mixed bag of fortunes for players in the space as foreign firms exit, new entrants join and others turn to mergers and private equity firms to fund their expansion.
Despite the fact that some of the retailers have been on an aggressive expansion, Kenya has become a tough market for foreign players forcing investors to tread carefully.
This has been evidenced by the rate of expansion of the firms compared to the homegrown counterparts. Carrefour for instance, had six branches in 2018 rising to 16 in 2022 compared to local retailers like Naivas that grew its outlets to 88 in the same period from 46.
