Nakumatt may finally close all its remaining stores by January 2020

Nov 27, 2019

Nakumatt has closed its Kisumu store, bringing the number of stores it has remaining to just 5. Kenyan media has also reported a store manager saying that the company has plans to close all its stores by January 2020. Botswanan chain Choppies will also close all five of its Kisumu branches by January.

Nakumatt’s Kisumu store was its last outlet outside Nairobi. From a peak of 64 stores spanning Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, the company now has just five stores left. Even this is, in its own way, a minor miracle given the debt levels the troubled Kenyan retailer has operated under. In 2017 it revealed that its debt was Sh30bn ($290m). To put this in context for individual suppliers, Nakumatt owes dairy company New Kenya Cooperatives Creameries alone Sh290m ($2.83m) for unpaid milk deliveries.

37 employees at the Kisumu store have now served Nakumatt management with a seven-day notice to demand 3 months of pay. The store manager has revealed that this totals around Sh2m ($20,000). This week it was also revealed that former Nakumatt employees in Uganda had petitioned the country’s parliament over redundancy payments owed since Nakumatt exited two years ago.

Earlier this month, Nakumatt sought to appeal a Kenyan High Court decision allowing a former landlord in Diani (Mombasa) to recover more than Sh107m ($1.04m) in rental arrears from remaining Nakumatt assets.

Buried in articles on the Kisumu closure is a key piece of speculation: that within the company plans to close all the remaining five stores had been outlined. If so, it would finally mean the end of what was East Africa’s largest grocery chain.

Choppies is closing all five of its Kisumu branches, one by one, as it prepares to exit Kenya. We expect the last of them to be closed in January.

Loading...

Looking for more trends and insight on FMCG in Africa?

Join Trendtype's mailing list for news, events and more.

Thank you for joining us. Speak to a member of our team today on +44 333 567 9995

Looking for more trends and insight on FMCG in Africa?

Join Trendtype's mailing list for news, events and more.

Thank you for joining us. Speak to a member of our team today on +44 333 567 9995