Bigger challenge than Kilimanjaro? Atul Haku Shah hopes to rule Africa's supermarket

Author: Ishani Duttagupta & ET Bureau
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: October 22, 2012
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/nris-in-news/bigger-challenge-than-kilimanjaro-atul-haku-shah-hopes-to-rule-africas-supermarket/articleshow/16894304.cms

When Atul Shah travelled to the US for a year in 1983 he was just 17. But he had no interest in a formal higher education in America and didn't head for a fancy B-School. Instead, he spent the 12 months studying the retail sector and working in supermarkets. He was developing a business strategy for his own family business back in Kenya.

"My parents had immigrated to Kenya from Jamnagar in Gujarat in the 1940s, long before I was born. My father had then set up a small retail business in Nakuru, a city near Nairobi," says Shah. Even as a student in secondary school, he was passionate about the retail business and worked part-time in the family store.

The trip to the US was to get a better understanding of big retail formats and hone his skills. "The sheer size of the retail industry in America was an eye-opener and I was convinced that we could start a retail revolution back in Africa too," says Shah.

His father Nemchand had acquired a small retail business called Nakuru Mattresses in 1978, which had then evolved into Nakumatt, the family retail store mainly selling mattresses.

While, over the years, the product offerings had expanded into various other things such as FMCG and consumer durables, it was Atul, after his return from the US, who is credited with starting the retail revolution in East Africa with the first superstore in Nairobi in 1992 called Nakumatt Mega.

Today his group, Nakumatt Holdings, is the largest retailer across East Africa, and the Nakumatt Mega network has spread to 27 locations in Kenya and has expanded to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan.

In 2008, Nakumatt opened its first store outside Kenya in Kigali (Rwanda). And in June 2009, the first Nakumatt store in Uganda opened in central Kampala. Uganda is one of the big markets for Shah and in November 2010, Nakumatt acquired Payless Supermarket, a supermarket chain in Uganda.

"There is a huge business opportunity in Africa in formal retailing formats, which I plan to tap in the years to come. In Kenya, too, the retail revolution is catching on and we are identifying smaller towns to set up supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores," says Shah.