Choppies supermarket could be at the verge of closing down its operations in Kenya, following a strained relationship with suppliers which has seen its shelves go empty for weeks now.
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The retailer, which took over from cash strapped Ukwala Supermarket, has been unable to maintain the tempo in the Kenyan retail industry, which has seen its cash flow dwindle.
Currently, the retailer headquartered in Botswana is surviving on reduced customer traffic, who are greeted by empty shelves and ‘hopeless’ staffers, reported to have gone for months without pay.
According to a statement by the Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers (KUCFAW) Secretary General Boniface Kavuvi, Choppies workers have not been paid in full for a long period now.
The troubled empire of late politician and business tycoon Njenga Karume is facing a litmus test with the planned auction of the prime Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi to clear a bank loan.
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The hotel, which is among the few surviving businesses that the late politician left behind, has been earmarked for sale to recover an Sh257.6 million loan owed to Guaranty Trust Bank.
Karume, a former minister for Defence, died barely seven years ago leaving behind multi-billion shilling properties.
The shrewd businessman had, however, also accumulated a debt load that his family and a board of trustees he appointed to oversee his estate have struggled to clear.
In his prime, Karume was the biggest distributor of beer maker East African Breweries Limited’s products, a lucrative, long-term contract that earned him billions of shillings over the years. https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/news/Karumes-Jacaranda-Hotel-put-on-auction/539546-5190130-cr7aoe/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1IwR4rAjO_kvqRiM1p3zkD-4vx2vTUYjxNuIx35reGL870YjPl3W3NJL4
Choppies retained the same top management of ukwala supermarkets that mismanaged the company. A bad move for a new entrant. Vile money was siphoned ilikua on another level. Choppies should have started afresh Kama carefour instead of buying a dying company
Kenyans are very loyal to their store…a new entrant will need to come in with kishindo to make people want to pop in and see after which they start trickling in after establishing you have stuffs. You sneak in like choppies utajiongelesha.
Choppies?? That is not the barometer of Kenya’s economic health, and everybody knows that the Karume estate is in a mess because of flawed, corrupt trusteeship.
I have eaten some of their money (ka contract fulani hapo) but I didn’t like those wahindis running the place, very bad Indians, terrible ones and very unfriendly.
The economy is thriving but not for everybody. Look at the financials za Safaricon, Equity, KCB, Nation Media, EABL, Centum Investments ndio utajua the economy is thriving.
Betting companies revenues went from Kshs 2B to Kshs 200B within 4½ years. Isn’t that a sign of thriving economy?
It is growing by 6% which is what both IMF and Kenyan economics say.
The kind of mentality that made kenyans name a popular vegetable sukuma wiki blinds them to the reality of the economy around them. they are forever suffering.
I blame it on the local media which is full of anti-government shills. They never ever ever report the positives. So when a lightweight Kenyan seats to watch the clueless panelists on TV shows discussing the state of the economy, they will be told Kenya is burning and nothing is worth saving. Those Kenyans believe them fully.
I shop pale Naivas ,but after Ile scandal ya sukari I somehow have a feeling that they have some dirt games behind the success and rapid expansion in the last 5 years .