Sefalana on expansion spree
Botswana’s big retailer plans 5 stores per year
Sefalana has announced intentions to continue looking for growth opportunities, as part of its strategic objective. The Managing Director, Chandra Chauhan in the 2023 Sefalana Integrated Annual Report said the aim is for the Group to evolve and position itself for long- term success, through growing the business. “On an on- going basis, we are in search of suitable sites for further growth. There are a number of locations in the pipeline where progress is being made with landlords. “We estimate an average rate of five new stores a year for the foreseeable future,” said Chauhan. He, however highlighted that the company is mindful of the level of saturation in the country, citing that the company will only open new stores where there is a sound business case to do so. Currently the fast moving consumer goods ( FMCGs) outlet has four hyper stores, 25 cash and carry stores, 31 supermarket retail stores, 58 liquor stores, four convenience stores, and one catering outlet, giving the Group a total of 123 stores. “We are pleased to report that with this continued level of growth, our Group has created employment for an additional 1,004 staff during the year, taking our total number of staff to 6,623, representing an 18 percent increase. “We are pleased to be one of the largest private sector employers in the country. Of the 1,004 additional staff, 546 related to the Botswana businesses. Our citizen employment rate in Botswana remains just over 99.4 percent,” said Chauhan. Despite the group’s resilience, Chauhan says FMCG businesses had been adversely affected for much of the last two years by the trading restrictions that had been in place. “These restrictions have largely been lifted and consequently there has been a solid recovery of performance by this segment. There remain however, a number of import restrictions on confectionary, fruit and vegetables, but we have managed to mitigate the downside impact of this through diversification into wider product and service offerings. “We have also assisted a selection of local farmers with short- term working capital funding to enable them to grow their produce.” Chauhan further said consumers have begun to visit stores more often and basket sizes that had reduced significantly, have begun to increase. “The consumer is still somewhat cautious and tends to focus more on value packs, necessities, and private label products, rather than luxuries,” he said.