Tue Jun 19 06:31:00 UTC 2012
Shoprite, the largest supermarket group on the African continent, recently became the first South African retailer to enter the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the opening of a world-class supermarket in Gombe, Kinshasa, bringing the Group’s lower prices to the people of the area.
The Shoprite Group is firmly entrenched in Africa, with over 99 000 employees and operations comprising more than 1300 corporate stores in 17 countries. The Group’s 155 supermarkets outside of South Africa employ more than 11 000 people and serve approximately 10 million customers per month.
Shoprite Gombe is situated in the new Shoprite Shopping Centre, located at 11268 OAU Avenue Ngaliema Kinshasa, that houses a variety of other retail outlets such as a Hungry Lion fast food outlet (also part of the Group), banks, and mobile phone service providers.
The new Shoprite Gombe offers the residents of Gombe and surrounding areas an entirely new shopping experience. The supermarket caters for all customers’ daily, weekly and monthly food and household requirements through a wide selection of products sourced both locally and internationally. The supermarket also boasts a bakery, butchery with local meats, full delicatessen and a large selection of wines and beers.
In the DRC, as in all the countries and communities in which it trades, the Shoprite Group aims to assist in creating jobs and contribute to the economy of the country, especially through stimulation of the local manufacturing and agricultural industries.
More than 200 local citizens were trained and are now employed in the new supermarket. Shoprite also recruited 25 DRC expats, who were employed as trainees in the Group’s South African stores, to utilize their retail skills and experience in the new Shoprite Gombe. Most of these trainees came to South Africa in search of better employment opportunities, but with the prospect of good jobs were overjoyed to be able to return to their homeland, family and friends.
Where possible, the Shoprite Group makes use of local suppliers to provide products and fresh produce needed in its supermarkets. The DRC currently has a limited offering in certain product categories, but the Group anticipates local entrepreneurs to expand operations in the near future and importation to decrease accordingly as more locally manufactured items become available. At present customers are, however, responding well to the new products that Shoprite is bringing in from South Africa, as these products are much more affordable than the selection of European products that the people of the DRC had access to up till now. The Shoprite Group would like to extend a business invitation to local suppliers, who feel that they can contribute products to Shoprite, from Kinshasha and the surrounding areas, to contact Shoprite by sending an e-mail to jkouadio@shoprite.co.za
The Shoprite Group hopes to bring modern shopping opportunities to even more of the DRC’s people, and are currently investigating the possibility of opening additional stores in the country.
The store manager of Shoprite Gombe, Francois Kitoko Okamba, invites the community of Kinshasa and surrounds to visit the new supermarket, experience lower prices on basic food and household items, and see for themselves how pleasant shopping really can be. The store is open Monday to Sunday from 08h00 until 20h00.