South African retail giant Massmart, which operates the Game Stores, is planning for a possible shut down of its outlets in Ghana, ghextratcives.com is learning.
Ahead of the move, the firm is offering a 10 percent discount and above on almost all of its items from now till December 25.
A visit to the Accra Mall branch of Game saw some the inscriptions such as ” Closing Down”, Everything Reduced” and Everything Must Go”.
It is not yet clear when the firm intend officially closing but this could lead some job loss in the coming days.
This is not the first time some major outlet is shutting down operations in Ghana.
Game is offering discounts of 10 percent and above on almost all of its items from now till December 25, 2022, ahead of a possible shutdown of its operations in Ghana.
South African retail giant Massmart, which operates the Game Stores, plans to shut down its three outlets in Kenya, after rival supermarkets snubbed sale offers, giving a new dimension to the troubles facing the supermarket business in the region.
The firm has started talks with its staff ahead of the stores’ official shutdown, marking the end of its seven-year struggle in the market and adding to a growing list of local and foreign retailers that have closed shop in recent years.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed retail giant said on Wednesday that it did not find domestic buyers for its 14 Game stores in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria after putting them up in the market last year.
The retailer said in March last year it would also explore the option of engaging potential buyers to improve the performance of some of its stores under the management of investors and entrepreneurs with a better understanding of local market conditions.
“Massmart initiated a process over a 12-month period to investigate… the opportunity to sell our East and West African stores to local investors. Unfortunately, this initiative did not deliver a meaningful outcome,” the company said.
Kenya has become a tough market for retailers following the collapse of Nakumatt and Tusky’s, which had dominated for decades.
Uchumi has also struggled to survive the cut-throat competition as deep-pocketed newcomers such as Quickmart and French retailer Carrefour battle for a space in the market.
Anton Wagenaar, a director at the South African retailer, said the decision to exit Kenya was made in March 2020 and the supermarket commenced negotiations with various landlords to surrender their leases ahead of time.
Game vice-president of merchandise Neville Hatfield said the review had sought to “investigate, as a preferred option, the opportunity to sell our store to local investors”, but the initiative had “unfortunately … not yielded meaningful results”.
“We have, therefore, initiated potential store closure consultations with our staff members in the potentially affected stores,” Mr Hatfield said.
The planned exit of retailer Massmart will add to the growing list of firms from Southern Africa to close shop in Kenya.
It comes a few months after Shoprite, another Southern African retailer, closed shop barely two years after launching operations in Kenya. Shoprite cited underperformance of its supermarkets for the closure.
The firm said the underperformance was worsened by impacts associated with Covid-19.
