On Thursday, the South African retailer officially opened its third outlet in Kenya and its first outside Nairobi, at the Kisumu Mega City Mall.
Game Africa Director, Richard Fuller handed over the store certificate to Crispin Mathaiya, the store manager for Game Kisumu in a colourful ceremony.
The Kisumu outlet has taken the war to woo customers to its rival's territory as it occupies space in the same mall that houses Nakumatt, which has lost nearly all of its prime locations to competitors, signalling increased competition for the troubled retailer.
Game will occupy the mall’s prime space on the ground floor while Nakumatt, which was Mega City Mall’s anchor tenant, is currently on 1st floor.
The Kisumu store now joins Game’s other two stores located in Nairobi namely at Garden City and Karen Waterfront outlet.
Game Stores, a subsidiary of South Africa’s Massmart Holdings, opened its first and only local outlet in May 2015 at the Garden City Mall located along Thika Road.
It is not hard to see why the Game is keen to increase its presence in Kenya. Kenya has the second most developed retail market in sub-Saharan Africa with about 30 percent of retail shopping being done in formal outlets, according to a Citigroup study, whetting the appetite of global chains.
Kisumu, which literally means a place of barter trade "sumo" and officially known as Kisumu City, is the Kenyan inland port city on Lake Victoria and the capital city of Kisumu of Kisumu County is also an attractive location by its standards.
It is the third largest city in Kenya after the capital, Nairobi, and the coastal city of Mombasa. The City is the principal city of western Kenya.
