New Markets Investor

Q3 2015a regular basis. Ghanaian Grace Amey-Obeng Openeda beauty clinic in the1980s to help her fellow Ghanaians to reversethe damaging effects that bleachingproducts have had on their skin.However, with the imported skincareproducts she prescribed becoming tooexpensive for her customers – especiallygiven the Ghanaian cedi’s poor performance– Ms. Amey-Obeng decided tostart her own product range, ForeverClair, in 1998. Starting out with onlyUS$100, the business now has an annualturnover of US$8 million - US$10 million.The company has eight branchesin Ghana and also exports to Nigeria,Burkina Faso, Togo, the Ivory Coast, andeven Switzerland and the UK.KenyaFoodKenya’s food retail sector is developingwell. Foreign retailers are yet to breakinto the market with four local players –Nakumatt, Tuskys, Uchumi, and Naivasdominating the scene. Nakumatt has thebiggest market share, although Tuskyshas a larger number of branches. Stores ofthese companies are also very prevalentin other East African countries, especiallyUganda. In February 2015, Nakumattopened one of the three outlets whichit purchased from Shoprite in Tanzania,where Kenyan retailers still have only alimited presence. Kenyan retailers areexpected to increase the range of theirproduct offerings over the outlook periodin order to build market share. They willalso be looking to expand further in theregion, especially in countries wheretheir presence is still relatively limitedsuch as Tanzania, Rwanda, and SouthSudan. Meanwhile, Massmart’s attemptto acquire a stake in Naivas had failed,although the company is still looking toexpand into the Kenyan market, mostprobably through taking space in thenewly opened Garden City Mall.BeerWhile still the dominant producer inKenya, East African Breweries Limited(EABL, a subsidiary of Diageo) has seencompetition intensify in recent yearsfrom small local brewers and imports ofinternational brands such as Heinekenand SABMiller. Still, East African Breweriescontrols around 90% of the Kenyanbeer market, and continues to expandinto the rest of East Africa.A big focus for East African Breweriesis to boost the spirits penetration rateamongst East African consumers; thecompany has accordingly invested inmarketing and sales capabilities in thisarea. While its ‘mainstream’ brandsremain the most popular, the companyexpects consumers to trade up over timeas incomes rise.New Markets Investor41