•Game stores open branch at Mega City Mall in Kisumu city
BY MAURICE ALAL @alalmaurice
South African retailer Game Stores on Thursday opened its third outlet in Kenya at the Mega City Mall in Kisumu.
It has previously launched two branches in Garden City and Karen Waterfront, both in Nairobi.
The Kisumu store replaces Nakumatt which was initially the mall’s anchor tenant.
Nakumatt was moved to the first floor to leave the prime space at Mega City mall to Game Stores. The new supermarket will compete with those already in the lakeside city.
Kisumu Deputy Governor Mathews Owili presided over the official opening and asked residents to take advantage of the outlets for job opportunities.
“Our residents must now embark on serious agribusiness to ensure they have products to supply the supermarkets,” Owili said.
Tuskys, Naivas, Chandarana, Choppies, Khetias and Tumaini are the other supermarkets in Kisumu. Tuskys, Khetias and Tumaini all have two outlets each with Botswana retailer Choppies have the most at four.
Game Stores opened with a promotion in which customers buy goods at discounted prices. The promotion ends on Sunday.
Game Stores, a subsidiary of South Africa’s Massmart Holdings, opened its first and only local outlet on May 2015 at the Garden City Mall along Thika Road in Nairobi.
The launch of its third outlet signals renewed confidence in the Kenyan market.
Choppies is currently facing financial challenges with some outlets in Kisumu out of stock. Insiders said suppliers were on a go-slow over non-payments.
The supermarkets CEO Ramachandran Ottapathu was fired on May 22, throwing most operations into disarray.
Ottapathu’s exit follows a tumultuous year that saw the suspension of the firm’s trading in the Botswana and Johannesburg stock exchanges.
The supermarket appointed Farouk Ismail as interim CEO and Redford Capital as the turnaround manager.
The retailer’s delays in paying suppliers in Kenya has got the industry anxious, with some analysts claiming the store may be a victim of unplanned expansion.
Kenya has the second most developed retail market in sub-Saharan Africa with about 30 per cent of retail shopping being done informal outlets, a Citigroup study conducted last year shows, whetting the appetite of global chains.
edited by peter obuya