Kenyan supermarket chain Khetia Drapers has announced that it is merging with Society Stores.

Khetia’s, which was founded in 1982, currently has 15 stores, mostly in western Kenya with one in Nairobi. Society Stores, which was founded in 2014, has 6, of which four are to the north of Nairobi and two are in Meru County. The larger chains (Naivas, Quickmart, Chandarana Foodplus and Carrefour) are all predominantly based in Nairobi. Society Stores’ founder Trushar Khetia made a deliberate decision when founding his chain to pick “nice agricultural, cash-heavy towns” rather than try to compete with the big chains in Nairobi.

The two chains have always existed under the same ownership and have now decided it would be more efficient for both business and customers to combine into one large chain, which will be the third largest in Kenya by number of stores and the fifth largest by sales value. Combining operations will allow them to reduce office costs and access economies of scale as well as reach a larger geographic area.

The merger is due to be completed by the end of 2021.