The family-owned business said it will open large size convenience stores in Riverside, Thigiri, and General Mathenge in Westlands over the next four months.
The stores will offer food-oriented products and household items like small electric appliances which are an easy pick for shoppers.
Chandarana Foodplus Supermarkets will focus its expansion in residential areas, eyeing heavy traffic in the estates, making a U-turn in its strategy that favoured malls.
The family-owned business said it will open large size convenience stores in Riverside, Thigiri, and General Mathenge in Westlands over the next four months.
The stores will offer food-oriented products and household items like small electric appliances which are an easy pick for shoppers.
Supermarkets have in the past years been relied on by landlords as anchors in malls. Some, however, have been facing cash flow challenges leading to stock-outs and subsequently reduced footfall, forcing them to shut down.
“We will be looking at what works best for us depending on the customer base and traffic flow,” Moses Nguthiru, Chandarana Foodplus head of marketing said during the opening of a store on Rhapta Road.
“Being in estates, there is no hassle for parking and it is more convenient to target customers as most people have now limited shopping to weekends or doing huge shopping once a month.”
In December 2019, Chandarana closed its branch in Two Rivers Mall and opened in Ridgeways. The company said the Two Rivers Mall outlet was “less busy”.
The store was located in the same location as Carrefour. Chandarana is currently operating 24 branches across the country, and will also open an outlet in an undisclosed mall outside Nairobi.
The company’s expansion is set to raise competition in the formal retail industry that has seen some players grow their reach while others fold due to large debts and mismanagement.
Quickmart, Carrefour, Chandarana and Naivas are the major supermarkets seeking to fill the void left the collapse of former giants Nakumatt Holdings and Tuskys.
Nakumatt went into administration in 2018 after it was unable to pay billions of shillings owed to suppliers, banks and debt investors.
Tuskys followed suit, losing nearly all its stores after defaulting on suppliers and other creditors.
Tuskys, until recently Kenya’s top retailer with 53 stores, has less than 10 outlets operating amid stock-outs.
