Firm targets support on local market, opens new outlet

With a target to meet the needs of Nigerians through good quality products, a retail outlet, Hartleys Supermarket has opened a new store to help stimulate businesses, support local enterprise, and create new jobs.

At the opening of the new store, located at Falomo Square, Ikoyi, Lagos, Group Managing Director, Primera Africa Finance Group Limited, the parent company of Hartleys Supermarkets, Boye Olawoye, said it was important to give consumers what they desire through good quality products, stating that most supermarkets lack the capacity of an international standard.

Olawoye, who revealed the firm’s expansion strategy to be the leading brand in Nigeria with numerous outlets spread across the country, expressed confidence on the firm’s outlook to sail through in the midst of competitive brands.

Despite the country’s harsh operating environment and challenges encountered while setting up the store, he said: “We faced some hardships at some point in time but that shouldn’t stop us, whenever there are challenges, we tackle it and keep moving on. We feel that it is important for us to give consumers what they deserve; a place where people will feel so comfortable on the quality of things they bought.”

Chairman, Primera Africa Finance Group Limited, Folusho Philips, said the group was setting a standard for big supermarkets such as Hartleys, by ensuring products are of high quality, good service delivery, and a chance for participation of locally produced goods.

The move, Philips said, would begin to raise the standard of those along the company’s supply chain.

He said: “Apart from increasing local content, we have plans to spring up across the country in the next five years. We plan to have franchise of shops; whereby the more shops you open, the more outlets for those who are supplying the shops. That is more important in growing the economy and increasing the demand for products. The more we create a platform for these things to be sold, the better it is for the economy.”

Similarly, General Manager, Commercial, Hartleys Supermarket, Samuel Abiola-Jacobs, said the premium supermarket with over 25,000 products on its shelves, would have a competitive fair price on all its products.

He said with many workers on its payroll, the firm planned to stimulate employment generation along the value chain to create more jobs.

Also, a shareholder at Hartley’s and Vice Chairman, National Association of Supermarket Operators of Nigeria (NASON), Mahmoud Tabaja, added that “Nigerians deserve the best to have the selection they want and to have the best in the world, why don’t we give it to them?”

Chairman, Board of Directors, Hartleys Supermarket, Mrs. Yewande Zaccheus officiated the ribbon-cutting.