South African retail giant Game Discount World Limited, which runs the Game Stores in Nigeria, said it finalized plans to close its shops and exit the Nigerian market by December 25, 2022.
The company initially planned to sell its Nigerian assets to Xanderwill Limited but now says it will empty all its stores through a stock clearance sale.
Earlier this month, the company notified its business partners of the plan to close the company. But in a new letter dated October 26 as seen by Nairametrics, the company announced the final shutdown date of December 25.
This comes one day after the company also announced its exit in Kenya.
What the company is saying
The Vice President of Merchandise at Game, Neville Hatfield, who signed the letter, explained the decision:
- “On October 4, 2022, we notified you that we had initiated potential Game store closure consultations with our staff members in Nigeria. These consultations follow a decision to discontinue the process to sell our Game Stores in Nigeria to Xanderwill Limited.
- “We also committed to providing you with a further update as soon as we had clarity on the way forward, following consultations with our staff, which have now been completed. Unfortunately, in the present circumstances, we feel that there are no reasonable alternatives to store closure. This has been an exceptionally difficult decision to take and we recognize that it will be a source of disappointment for many. In the case of Game staff members, our undertaking is to provide severance packages in recognition of their service to our company.
- “Similarly, we will meet our outstanding commercial commitments to our business partners in Nigeria. In terms of immediate next steps, it is our intention to initiate a stock clearance sale in our stores in Nigeria.
- “We anticipate that the last trading day for Game Nigeria will be on 25 December 2022. We will contact you within the next weeks to finalize commercial expectations and arrangements with you. Thank you for your service to Game Nigeria, we are so sorry that we have been unable to continue our operations in your country.”
What you should know
- Nairametrics had earlier reported that Game Store planned to sell its assets in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
- This followed a similar action by another South African retail store, Shoprite, which also exited Nigeria last year.
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Not a surprise at all, judging by the half empty shops they’ve been operating in parts of the country for sometime now. I wish them well. I guess, stifling competition from several new local operators and worsening economic conditions have driven most shoppers to these newer and smaller shops that offer lower prices.
With everything now. You no put their location
Very pathetic that this country is gradually loosing investors , and that meant nothing to the present administration in the country
The only surprise is that they lasted as long as they did. Their store are almost always usually half-empty, and presumably the free-falling Naira must be decimating their bottom line.
What is SPAR doing differently?. How come they seem immune to this affliction whacking our southafrican investors. A case study?