Massmart has made a step change in Ghana. The discounter, which launched its first Game store in Ghana in 2007, has now opened its next three stores within the past 18 months. It signals a change of pace for the South African retailer, which now becomes the third largest retailer in Ghana after Shoprite and Melcom.

Massmart now has four stores in Ghana – its first, in the modern Accra Mall launched in 2007. Its second store launched in Kumasi City Mall, in Ghana’s second largest city, in April 2017. Its third store, in West Hills Mall to the west of Accra, launched in September 2018 and has a floorspace of 3,500m². Its latest store, in Achimota Mall (aka Achimota Retail Centre) in the north of Accra, will open in November.

Massmart’s growth has been enabled by the emergence of new, premium malls in Ghana. In each of Game’s four locations South African chain Shoprite, the largest supermarket chain in Ghana, is also present. Game will replace Ghanian hypermarket chain Palace in both West Hills and Achimota. The move means that Palace now has only two stores – its standalone flagship store on the busy Spintex Rd in Accra and its newer hypermarket in Kumasi.

Game has largely tried to put a smaller number of stores in several countries outside its home market of South Africa in a bid to create a larger international footprint.  With the rand continuing to trade poorly against the dollar, Massmart’s appetite for expansion can be read as an attempt to hedge against its reliance on South Africa. CEO Guy Hayward has noted that Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya are strong markets for Game. Earlier this year the company also revealed that it was starting to look at francophone West African markets.

Ghana will see a spate of new shopping mall openings in the next 12 months, which will reshape the retail landscape:

• The 12,000m² The Exchange mixed use development in Accra
• The 8,300m² Edge mall in Adenta, north east of Accra,
• The 11,700m² Takoradi Mall, due in 2019 and to be anchored by Shoprite
• New malls in Tamale (in the north of Ghana) and Tema (Ghana’s main port, just outside Accra). The Tamale and Tema malls are both due to be anchored by Palace. We believe that those tenancies may well become Game stores.

Three of these new malls are due to be anchored by South African supermarket chain Pick n Pay, which has been threatening to expand into Ghana for years. In that context, Game’s takeover of existing Palace stores also provides it with a useful lead on one of its longstanding rivals in South Africa.