Massmart Prioritizes Nigeria Market, in Pan-African Expansion Plan
Massmart, one of Africa’s biggest retail chains, and owners of Games Stores, has said Nigeria is at the core of its growth strategy as it looks to deepen its footprint outside of South Africa and become a dominant player on the continent.
In a move that will create direct competition with Shoprite, the biggest retail franchise in Africa, Massmart said it would also expand its investments in Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.
The firm’s plan on Nigeria was disclosed by the chairperson of Massmart Holdings Kuseni Dlamini while responding to recent criticism that the franchise had not met growth expectation more than six years after its $2.4billion acquisition by Walmart, the world’s biggest retail store. Analysts have hoped that the deal would result in rapid expansion for the outfit across major African markets, but that has not been the case.
Dlamini said, “Nigeria is very much at the core of our strategy. We are growing our business in Nigeria and Ghana. We are looking at growing our footprint in markets such as Kenya. We are looking at Uganda, Tanzania. We are looking at scaling in those markets, building more stores so that we can grow our presence in those markets.”
Massmart operates game stores in Nigeria and has about 10 outlets around the country. But these are expected to increase in the coming years.
Further responding to the criticism, Dlamini responded, “We’re very committed to growing our business on the African continent. We see massive opportunity there for us to be part of modernising the retail industry, to be part of contributing to growth and development across Africa.
“We are following a disciplined approach. We do not just open stores for the sake of opening stores. Our business is about sustainability. It is about being there for a long time. It is easy to open a store today and find that tomorrow it is not sustainable. So, we have a very rigorous, systematic, calculated approach that we use to decide where and when we open a store.”
Also speaking on how the alliance with Massmart had progressed he said, “I think the relationship has matured over the years and has been mutually beneficial. One of the positive impacts is our supplier development programme. We have managed to create new entrepreneurs that are now part of the supply chain, whose goods you find in our stores. In addition, those entrepreneurs have created new jobs that were not there before. We try to identify opportunities for us to source from local African entrepreneurs. When it comes to talent on the African continent, we employ locals in most of the market. Over 95 per cent of our staff across Africa comprises local associates.”
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