By Ismail Auwal
Several thousands of workers may lose their jobs as Massmart a South African retailer conglomerate plans to shut down its Games Discount stores in Nigeria.
Sahelian times gathered that the company has concluded arrangements to pack out of the country by December 25, 2022.
AT the moment, there were 5 shops located in Kano, Abuja, Enugu and Lagos with a staff strength of over 1000.
In an interview with SAHELIAN TIMES, a retail shop manager with one of the Nigerian branches who did not want to be mentioned, however advanced that the decision to closed may not be unconnected with poor sales and unfriendly government policies.
“Over 1000 people are likely to lose their jobs across our Kano, Abuja, Enugu, and two Lagos branches,” he said.
However findings by SAHELIAN TIMEs showed that the assets of the store were sold to a controlling shareholder of PricePointe Wholesale Club, an organisation that operates a wholesale store in Lagos.
Massmart’s Chief Executive, Mitch Slape had hinted last year that Massmart was disposing of its general merchandise Game stores in West and East Africa to stem losses after Walmart, a global retail behemoth, which presently owns a 51 percent majority stake in Massmart, reported continued losses for Massmart for FY 2021.
Massmart says the move to withdraw from Nigerian and East African markets will result in an annual profit before interest and tax TV TV improvement of 750 million rand ($50.24 million).
