QuickMart Supermarket is set to take up the space Tuskys vacated at Echiro Mall in Kisii town in the race for a piece of South Nyanza retail market.
The retailer will start operations at the building situated on Moi Avenue tomorrow, stepping up competition with rival Naivas that has a presence in the town.
“We shall be opening QuickMart Echiro branch on September 30. The new branch will bring the total number of our workers countrywide to 4,000,” QuickMart head of marketing Betty Wamaitha told the Business Daily in an interview Tuesday.
The new outlet, coming at a time former retail giant Tuskys has closed several of its branches, will become QuickMart’s 46th branch countrywide.
Tuskys Supermarkets faces cash flow hitch that has sparked a dispute with suppliers due to unsettled debts.
The retailer has been banking on an offshore investor to pump in Sh2.1 billion in a rescue plan amid doubts in court over the existence of a deal with the fund based in tax-haven Cayman Islands.
The retail industry has in the past seen an entry of new international players like Carrefour raising competition that partly resulted in the collapse of Nakumatt and Uchumi supermarkets.