Carrefour, the French distribution giant, will start operating in Uganda in just over three months.
The group has just launched its marketing campaign with posters indicating the opening of its first commercial space in Kampala in January 2019. The brand will operate its store in Mall Oasis, the same building that once housed the supermarket Kenyan Nakumatt, today in great financial difficulty. Quoted this morning by our colleague from the Daily Monitor, several sources familiar with the file confirm that “the company will initially operate a single store before expanding to other shopping centers.” However, the group’s management has not yet communicated on this subject. The teams at the African Alliance investment bank in Kigali, for their part believe that “the decision to establish Carrefour [in Uganda] is a positive point for the Ugandan clientele, which will see its offer expand, that ‘a strong signal about the country’s growth prospects’.
Many analysts surveyed, however, recall that the arrival of French comes at a time when several large brands have failed in a market that still relies heavily on small convenience stores. The recent shutdowns of retailers Nakumatt and Uchumi in Uganda – both from Kenya – illustrate this difficulty.
Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer (88.24 billion euros in sales in 2017), will nevertheless be able to rely on real experience in African markets: already present in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, In Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Kenya, the brand also announced plans to expand to Gabon, Congo and the DRC.
Source: Carrefour Group
