CAPTION: The Brick Mall in Thindigwa along Kimani Road where the newly opened 92nd Naivas store is located. Pic By Tum David.
By Tum David
KENYA’S number one leading Food Store in the country, Naivas Supermarket has officially opened its newest outlet, the 92nd over all, at the Brick Mall in Thindigwa along Kiambu Road.
The move is seen as the perfect Easter holiday gift towards its cherished customers. However, it is also seen as an exciting effort towards its expansion spree and a step closer to attaining the 100 mark of the number of stores Naivas Holdings plans to attain before the end of the year to become an accomplished supermarket chain in Kenya.
The new store which covers about 20,000sq ft of trading space, has been accelerated by Proparco, a French sovereign wealth fund which acquired a Ksh 3.8 billion stake in early September last year.
The Naivas Supermarket also has plans to open six outlets of the Food Chain in the next two months which aims to attain a record 100 number of stores, a record never attained by any retailer in the region.
Speaking after the opening of the 92nd branch at the Brick Mall in Thindigwa, Kiambu Road, the Chief Commercial Officer of Naivas Supermarket Mr Willy Kimani had this to say:
” Naivas is in the operating track and should be getting to its 100th store this year and even over that number for we don’t track on physical stores but we track about profitability stores”.
Mr Kimani said that the challenges brought about by the recent drought and the political noise in the country coupled with the dollar challenges all this affected a lot of things including supply issues.
” Therefore, it’s timely that the Kikapu Kibonge campaigns which we have been rolling, is a campaign that encompasses all seasons”. Mr Willy Kimani said.
He went on to say, ” For once we broke tradition instead of doing an Easter Campaign, we decided to go for a campaign that encompasses all the seasons because it’s not about an Easter meal it’s more about the season and the people, people don’t have food in the homes and income has remained constant, but unfortunately prices have been rising double digits and that’s the reason why we had to say no we’ve to do a campaign towards it”.
The Chief Commercial Officer said it was so important for Naivas that the opening of the 92nd store happens at the same time when the retailer is having the “Kikapu Kibonge” campaign countrywide.
The expansion spree seem to be unstoppable given the Supermarket’s plans to open soon more stores in Kisii town, coastal town of Mombasa and in Westlands and Karen in Nairobi.
” Ours is not a rush to open brick and mortar stores, no, it’s making sure that we can be able to competitively in a profitable manner to be able to actually have a product fit for the market” Mr Kimani added.