Government lauds Choppies community impact initiatives
The Vice President, Slumber Tsogwane has showered local retail giant, Choppies with praise for its contribution to uplifting the communities they operate. Tsogwane was speaking at the 2023 Choppies Big Birthday Bonanza competition prize give away ceremony held on Friday (February 9, 2024). The event held at BaIsago University and the winners of the 20th Choppies Big Birthday Bonanza were handed their prizes.
It was special occasion for both the retail store and its customers as for the first time a Choppies Big Birthday Bonanza Grand Prize was given away. Choppies for its two decades anniversary of the competition added an extra incentive with a brand new Mercedes Benz C-200 was won. In addition five Nissan Navara bakkies were won, while a total of 97 customers won themselves a P15,000 prize from each of the Choppies nation wide. A total of 20 Choppies staff members won P10,000 cash prizes.
The Choppies Big Birthday Bonanza started in 2003 then with just one car to be won. The competition has massively grown over the past 20 years as Choppies has given away 256 vehicles and prizes exceeding the P100million mark in worth. For this, Tsogwane said the retail giant need to be lauded for helping the government uplift the livelihoods of ordinary Batswana. “As government, we are trying our level best to improve the lives of Batswana through many programs as witnessed by the latest budget speech. We are however grateful for companies like Choppies, who take their profits and turn them into life improving, poverty eradication tools that complement our efforts as government,” said Tsogwane.
The Vice President further appreciated the
Choppies Management alongside its partners and suppliers for this endeavor as he said it in line with the government’s vision and mission to assist Batswana. Tsogwane said it is through initiatives like this one that we will see Batswana prospering and conquering economical adversities especially during hard economic times like the current.
“I would like to congratulate you all present and those that could not be with us today due to other commitments and wish you the very best with your new found wealth. Please use the cash prizes and the vehicles wisely so that they can be of great benefit to you and your families in the future. Such winnings can be turned into great generational wealth tools that can change lives for the better for futures to come,” Tsogwane. For his part, Choppies’ chief executive officer, Ramachandran Ottapathu was thankful to the fruitful partnerships the store has with its suppliers as he said this has aided in Choppies coming with initiatives such as the Big Birthday Bonanza competition that positively impact the lives of Batswana.
“Through out the years and the with the value change and variety of prizes we have managed to positively impact the lives of our customers. We do strive to have more value to the communities we operate in. We hope that in the future we can be able to increase these prizes and have more value to our customers,” Ottapathu said.
Choppies prides itself in operating over 161 stores across Southern Africa, thus making it one of the biggest retailers in Africa. This retail giant currently employs 10,000 staff members and proudly 6000 of them are Batswana. This makes Choppies the second largest employer after government.