Ugandan conglomerate Ruparelia Group has opened a supermarket in its new Kingdom Mall in Kampala. The 56,600m² mixed use site includes offices, apartments and retail and is backed by Chinese investors. It features a new Chinese-owned supermarket, under the Shopping Union fascia.
Ruparelia Group is a privately-owned is a privately owned Ugandan conglomerate with interests across education, hospitality, real estate and media. The Kingdom Mall, which officially opened in May 2019, is part of the mixed-use Kingdom Kampala development situated just northeast of the city’s CBD. It has 450 car spaces in the basement and capacity for 47 retail units, including the supermarket.
Shopping Union is the first supermarket under that fascia in Uganda. At the launch event Managing Director, Chen Xiao Lu, described it, improbably, as the largest supermarket in East Africa. The total available retail space in Kingdom Mall is 4,000m², compared to more than 7,000m² of retail floorspace for some of the largest supermarkets in Kenya.
From coverage of the launch event it appears that Shopping Union is more likely to be a contender for the largest supermarket in Uganda, or around 2,000m²-2,500m² in size. The supermarket stocks a mix of imported international brands as well as Chinese, Indian and Kenyan products, and some locally manufactured goods.
