Ethiopian edible oils company Turaco has attracted a $22m investment from French development finance organisation Proparco and South Africa’s Ethos Mezzanine Partners. The investment will fund the expansion of Turaco’s manufacturing operations, which include the Tena edible oil brand. Turaco manufactures …

Ethiopian conglomerate MIDROC, owned by one of the country’s wealthiest men, has opened the new $2.6m Sheger Bread & Flour industrial bakery capable of producing 1.6m loaves of bread per day. The site also houses a new flour mill that can …

DHL Express has taken a minority stake in Link Commerce, the UK-based e-commerce platform that sits beneath MallforAfrica.com and DHL’s Africa eShop service. DHL is betting on a fundamental change in purchasing behaviours in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which …

At Trendtype we have decided to put our thoughts down on paper, as it were. Headline: there are lots of reasons to believe that African countries may emerge from COVID-19 in better (or less worse) shape than developed economies in …

Nestlé has sold its 51% majority share in its Ethiopian bottled water business. As part of a restructuring of its water business, it will sell its share, owned since 2016, back to its joint venture partners in Great Abyssinia Spring Waters. …

Burger King is set to enter Ethiopia, with franchise partner Belayab Foods. Belayab Foods is the Pizza Hut and Cold Stone Creamery franchisee in Ethiopia. In July 2019 it bought the historic Bambis supermarket in Addis Ababa, which it is now …

The problem is retail development rankings are useless. Worse than useless, actually. We explain why we don’t trust AT Kearney’s Global Retail Development Index when it comes to Africa. A few years ago we wanted to build a retail market …

PepsiCo, the global beverages and snacks company that owns Frito-Lay, has acquired a majority stake in Ethiopian snacks company Senselet Food Processing. Senselet is the owner of local potato chips brand Sun Chips. Senselet was founded in 2015 by Netherlands-based Veris Investments, …

So here are our big themes in 2019 and a look ahead to 2020. It’s been another eventful year in African consumer and retail markets in 2019. Some big retail players coming unstuck In grocery retail, some big players have come …

The Ethiopian government has signed agreements with Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba to become its second Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hub – a private sector initiative to facilitate cross border ecommerce. It sounds like a win-win. But is it? Electronic …

Peer to peer farmer network and marketplace WeFarm has raised $13m in Series A round of funding. The round was led by True Ventures, with AgFunder and June Fund also investing. It means WeFarm has raised a total of $20m to …

Zoscales Partners has invested in Ethiopian biscuit manufacturer Ahadukes Food Products, whose brands include Marie Gold, Ginger Crunch and Tiger Creams. The investment aims to help the business increase production capacity, add up to 150 new jobs and improve export performance. …

This week airport retail operator Dufry has unveiled its revamped duty free retail sites at Casablanca and Marrakesh airports. Competitor Lagardère has also revealed more about its plans to expand in Africa and has acquired a diplomatic duty free outlet in …