Carrefour to open Junction Mall store at Nakumatt space

French retail giant Carrefour has confirmed it will open a fourth outlet at the Junction Mall space, which was vacated by struggling rival Nakumatt Holdings.

The new outlet opens in January, three months after the French firm first disclosed it was seeking space at the mall.

Carrefour, whose local franchise is held by Dubai-based conglomerate Majid Al Futtaim, already has three local outlets having opened its maiden one at The Hub, a shopping mall in Nairobi’s upmarket Karen suburb last year.

“We are excited to mark yet another milestone in our ambitious growth and expansion plan. The Junction is a highly strategic location for Carrefour Kenya, and is significant in our ongoing quest to serve a growing urban population yearning for a wide range of high-quality products at great value prices, and backed up by excellent customer service,’ said Carrefour Kenya country manager Franck Moreau.

READ: Carrefour takes TRM space after Nakumatt exit

The owners of the Junction Mall locked out Nakumatt Supermarkets, which has been the anchor tenant after the High Court set aside orders that allowed the troubled retailer to escape an initial eviction bid two weeks ago.

Mr Moreau said the store would benefit more than 640 Kenyan suppliers.

“We have adopted an approach at our Junction Mall store similar to the one we took earlier this month when we opened our Thika Road store.
“Short-term, we will open with a selected range of the most popular day-to-day products and eventually increase this to a full range of more than 30,000 items, including a wider selection of fresh produce, and an onsite fresh bakery and butchery, when we start full operations later in 2018,” he said.

The firm has over 210 stores in 15 markets and The Junction store will boost staff count in Kenya to 1,100.