CHOPPIES has added another outlet in Bulawayo making the total number of shops across the country to 33.
BY SHARON SIBINDI
Choppies Parklands, Bulawayo, was officially opened yesterday increasing the number of Choppies supermarkets in Bulawayo to 18. The event was attended by Siqokoqela Mphoko, former Vice-President Phelekezela Mhpoko’s son. The former VP has shareholding in Choppies Zimbabwe.
Choppies marketing co-ordinator, Trashmah Kazembe said: “Today (Friday) we opened Choppies Parklands and this is our shop number 33. We have seven outlets in Bulawayo and this will be shop number 18 in Bulawayo. We feel the shop is going to serve Parklands, Khumalo, Mahatshula and other nearby areas. We are also catering for motorists because we have ample parking space which is different from other outlets in the city centre.”
Kazembe said there was room for expansion of the retail sector in the city.
“We have plans to open more shops and there is potential,” she said.
The official opening of the new Choppies Parklands branch came at a time when there is a battle for control of the supermarket chain — Choppies Zimbabwe — pitting former Botswana President Festus Mogae and his business partners on one side and Mphoko on the other.
It has emerged that Mphoko might lose his shareholding after the foreign investors claimed he was drafted into the business in a ploy to comply with Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws which have now been abandoned by the new government.
