South African-based Spar Group has announced that it will join forces with an Angolan company to open a store in the country’s capital, Luanda, within the next six months
Spar Group finance director, Mark Godfrey, revealed that the supermarket giant would manage product distribution and logistics management on behalf of its Angolan partners.
Competition in South Africa’s retail industry has led operators to look abroad in search of new markets.
Godfrey said that the group’s board of directors decided that plans to enter other African markets should involve a local partnership.
"We decided some time ago that in taking our business model to Africa we needed local expertise or we were wasting our time," Godfrey said.
Spar Group is following in the path of food retail group Shoprite Holdings, who opened its first store in Luanda in 2003.
Headquartered in Pinetown, near Durban, Spar Group holds a 35 per cent stake in Spar Zimbabwe and has stores across southern Africa, including in Swaziland, Namibia, Mozambique and Botswana.
