Spar Cameroon has revealed plans to open a new store in Bertoua, the capital of the Eastern Region of Cameroon. Local partner L’Atrium signed an agreement with the Bertoua city council on April 1, 2021, with the aim to open the store by June 2022.
L’Atrium is a joint venture between FMCG distributor Dee-lite and electricals distributor Groupe Arno. Spar, which entered in 2015, has 6 stores in the country and is the 6th largest supermarket chain.
The new store will cost XAF1.5bn ($2.7m). Trendtype believes it will be around 800-1,000m² in size. Rakesh Panjabi, the co-owner of L’Atrium group, has said that strategically the Bertoua store will also serve Bangui (the capital of the Central African Republic, the north of the Republic of Congo and also Chad. We think the impact on the market in Chad will be minimal. So too possibly Bangui, which has several strong independent, well stocked supermarkets such as Rayan and Le Corail.
Nonetheless, the move out of Douala and Yaoundé is an exciting one. The only competitor of note will be local chain Nziko and the independent supermarket Pain d’Or. Other international chains such as Carrefour (CFAO), Casino and Super U have so far opened stores only in Douala or Yaoundé.
