Choppies Supermarket Going Down 3 Years After Take Off In Kenya

Botswanan retailer Choppies could be the next chain retailer to go down, barely three years after launching in the Kenyan market.

The retailer who sought to occupy the spaces left by Uchumi and Nakumatt is now struggling with stock shortage, and has already closed down two branches, Kiambu town branch and Bungoma town branch.

Empty shelves and reduced workforce is the stare shoppers face when they enter the retail stores.

According to Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers (KUCFAW) Secretary General, Boniface Kavuvi Choppies workers have not been paid in full to date.

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It has also been reported that the retailer is at loggerheads with suppliers, which it owes millions of shillings forcing them (suppliers) to halt supplies.

Choppies source of funding could have been drained following its delisting from the Botswana Stocks Exchange and Johannesburg Stocks exchange after it failed to release financial results at the end of June 30 2018.

The Chief Executive Officer, Ramachandran Ottapathu, was also suspended in May this year.

The retailer is facing a bleak future in most African countries where it is present, after its branches reduced from 260 to 48.

Choppies took over Ukwala supermarkets in 2016.

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