Choppies Enterprises Spreads Its Wings Across Africa

Having started with a few shops in Gaborone, our very own Retail Enterprise Choppies plans to spend 570 million pula to open more stores in Africa in the next 15 months. Already the store has 202 stores in big and small towns, but reported a 47 percent drop in half-year profit for the six months to end-December.

This has not dampened their moods though because Choppies  Chief Executive Ramachandran Ottapathu said his firm would expand in the seven countries it already operates in. To achieve this he explained that the capital expenditure in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique will be funded mostly from internal cash-flows. Talk about being optimistic.

Choppies, which makes around half of its sales in Botswana, plans to open 36 new stores in 2017. This multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Gaborone, is putting us on the world business map. Initially selling only food-based (both fresh groceries and wholesale long-life foods) and other fast-moving consumer goods,the store has now added stuff like clothes.