Choppies Zambia will open nine new outlets by the end of the year. The first new branch, in Chipata, will launch in July.

According to Choppies Zambia chief executive officer, Ramachandran Ottapathu, the current favourable investment environment in Zambia provided Choppies with good business opportunities outside Lusaka. This is so despite the current difficult trading conditions in East Africa, which have already caused Choppies to anticipate a fall in profit.

After the Chipata branch, Mr. Ottapathu stated that the Botswana-based retailer planned on opening nine more stores until 2018. Along with these, the number of local jobs created by Choppies will go from 800 to 2,000. Mr. Ottapthu also said that, following very good reception of Zambian products in Choppies stores in Botswana and Zimbabwe, the retailer would specifically increase the import of Zambian agricultural products. A Zambian Trade Mission is travelling to Botswana later in the month to negotiate more agreements between the retailer and small and medium enterprises in Zambia.

The launch of these new stores was preceded just last month by the opening of Choppies’ first store in Mozambique. Trendtype has been covering Choppies’ general expansion plan and the retailer’s intention to expand its store network in a number of countries, including Zambia, where it first opened in 2015. According to Trendtype’s Retail Database Tracker, Choppies already currently has ten stores in Zambia. Should the expansion go ahead as planned, the retailer would double the number of outlets in the country.