Nakumatt wannabe fined for anti-competitive behavior

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Shoprite and its subsidiary Computicket have been charged with anti-competitive behaviour. South Africa’s Competition Commission today said that it also recommended a fine, sending the retailer’s shares down more than four percent.

 

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In a statement, the commission said Shoprite and the event ticket seller had signed exclusive agreements that gave Computicket the ability to discriminate between large and small customers on prices and forced third parties to engage with Computicket, excluding its competitors.

“The Commission has asked the Tribunal to impose an administrative penalty of 10 percent of Computicket and Shoprite Checkers annual turnover,” the commission said.

Shares in the country’s biggest supermarket chain fell more than 4 percent after the announcement, but had recovered to 183 rand, a decline of 1.84 percent, by 1037 GMT.

 

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The continent’s largest retailer Shoprite plans to open four stores in Kenya by December. Shoprite Director Gerhard Fritz said the firm had been doing the groundwork, including recruiting and training staff, sourcing suppliers and setting up shop in the outlets.“We are still hopeful to be up and running with two outlets by December. We have to date secured four sites and we are working on getting more premises signed up,” said Fritz.

Shoprite, which was linked with Junction Mall, has also closed lease agreements with Garden City Mall in the space previously occupied by struggling Nakumatt, which closed its branch last year. The expansion comes slightly over a year after a number of retail stores across East Africa such as Uchumi and Nakumatt have experienced serious volatilities, forced to close regional operations.

Nakumatt, just like Uchumi, closed all its regional operations except in Kenya where its has also lost a lot of ground.

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