Naivas Supermarket is set to open a new branch in Naivasha next week as it continues with its expansion across the country.
The new store will be the retailer’s third outlet in Naivasha and the 84th store countrywide.
It comes at a time Naivas is racing to defend its market leadership against its closest rival QuickMart which has also been expanding in recent months.
Naivas Supermarket is set to open a new branch in Naivasha next week as it continues with its expansion across the country.
The branch that will be located at Safari Centre in Naivasha will target thousands of shoppers along the busy highway that leads to Western Kenya.
The new store will be the retailer’s third outlet in Naivasha and the 84th store countrywide.
It comes at a time Naivas is racing to defend its market leadership against its closest rival QuickMart which has also been expanding in recent months.
“We plan to open a new branch in Naivasha at Safari Centre next week,” Naivas chief commercial officer Willy Kimani told the Business Daily in an interview.
He said the new outlet will offer packed food, toiletries and fast-moving consumer goods such as beverages.
The new store will be coming up barely a month after the retailer opened its 83rd store in Kiambu Mall in a space that was previously occupied by troubled Botswana retailer Choppies Supermarket which exited the Kenyan market in 2019 after losses.
Naivas says the outlets will target mainly travellers as well as thousands of shoppers in the region.
The retailer has been on an aggressive expansion spree in the last few months, taking up prime space vacated by rivals and also new strategic locations.
It gained financial muscle to fund the growth after raising Sh6 billion from institutional investors including Amethis Finance which took a 30 percent stake in the firm.
Naivas and its rivals QuickMart and Carrefour are among the retailers that are spending heavily on expansion, seeking to fill voids left by collapsed and beleaguered supermarkets. Tuskys, for instance, has exited most of its stores on the back of heavy debt and insufficient working capital.
The collapse of former retail giant Nakumatt Holdings also left scores of prime locations that Naivas and Carrefour have moved into. The supermarkets often serve as anchor tenants in properties such as malls, helping to drive traffic to other stores.
