News

Personal care manufacturer PZ Cussons’ CEO Jonathan Myers has announced the company will explore exiting Africa after announcing disappointing results in Nigeria. PZ Cussons has operated in West Africa for 140 years, having first established operations in Sierra...

Walmart-owned South African discounter Massmart is launching a new small format Makro store within existing sites of its Game supermarket stores. The mini Makro stores will be trialled within four Game sites initially and will open in early H2 2024. The new stores...

Rwanda-based manufacturer of affordable breakfast cereals Africa Improved Foods (AIF) has launched its Nootri brand in Tanzania. The company is partnering with digital B2B buying platform Sarafu and aims to launch in 12,000 outlets in and around Dar es Salaam....

Libya’s Food and Drugs Control Centre (FDCC) looks like it is taking a more hardline approach to what it considers to be substandard imports from Egypt. In recent days it has turned back shipments of Schweppes soft drinks and Almarai yoghurts. We believe this is an...

Heineken subsidiary Nigerian Breweries has announced it will suspend production at two of its sites in Nigeria. The company, which has nine plants in Nigeria and brews the market-leading Star lager brand, has suffered from the depreciation of the Naira and its...

Guinness Ghana has launched its non-alcoholic Malta Guinness brand in new, slimmer "Jeje" can. The move is part of a wider trend in the beverages sector to premiumise brands buy using the slimmer can format, which also maximises use of shelf space. The formulation...

Tesh Mbaabu, the CEO and co-founder of Marketforce, has formally announced the closure of its online B2B buying platform, RejaReja. At the same time, Mbaabu launched Marketforce’s new venture, an investment in social commerce platform, Chpter. Marketforce was...

The UAE-based franchisee of the Spinneys supermarket chain in the UAE and Oman plans to sell a 25% stake in Spinneys holding company Spinneys 1961 Holding plc. Albwardy Investment, the UAE-based holding company that owns the franchise, also plans to launch Spinneys...

OmniRetail, the Nigeria-based online B2B grocery buying platform, has received an undisclosed investment from Dutch impact investor Goodwell Investments. Goodwell has invested via its uMunthu II fund alongside partner Alitheia Capital, effectively starting...

Tiger Brands, the owner of South African peanut butter brand Black Cat, has announced it has invested R300m ($15.8m) into a new manufacturing facility in Chamdor, Krugersdorp. The new factory replaces an older site. In its most recent financial results, Tiger...

South Africa's health regulator is recalling batches of Johnson & Johnson's children's cough syrup Benylin after high levels of diethylene glycol were detected. The batches, 329304 and 329303, date from 2021 and were sold in South Africa, Eswatini, Rwanda,...

Chinese online discount consumer goods marketplace Temu has started operations in Morocco, having opened in South Africa, its first African market, in January 2024. Temu has reportedly signed an agreement with Poste Maroc/Barid Al-Maghrib subsidiary Chrono Diali to...

Launch Africa Ventures, a Pan African Venture Capital firm, has announced it has invested an undisclosed amount into Zuri, an emergent start-up within the haircare and cosmetics sector. This comes after Zuri closed a $1.25m round in 2023 and launched a new $5m...

A new EU framework designed to prevent deforestation and which imposes due diligence requirements on the production of six key agricultural products, is likely to add cost and complexity to Ethiopian coffee exporters. It could potentially also have secondary...

Qatari dairy company Baladna has signed an agreement with the Algerian government to build a farm in Algeria for the production of powdered milk. The farm will cover 100,000 hectares and aim to produce 200,000 tonnes of powdered milk annually. In March...