BY BUSINESS DAILY: A Sh. 5 billion home furnishings and building materials supermarket owned by international construction firm, China Wu Yi will officially open doors next month.
The investment, Zhong Wu E-Commerce Kenya Limited, will be housed at the newly built Coloho Mall in Athi River providing shoppers access to a wide variety of products displayed on three floors.
The subsidiary is the second property established by the construction firm after it invested in a Sh10 billion pre-cast factory investment in Kitengela last year.
The subsidiary’s liaison officer Luis Ye Welhi said it has employed 46 local artisans taken through construction products’ phases during the construction.
“We now have a well-trained local team that can carry out any building task as they were part of the team that built the Sh1 billion mall. For big contracts, we shall send out a team but for individual walk-in clients, we shall charge a fee for the jobs,” he said.
The mall will feature finished furniture products sourced from China, building materials from global brands as well as electrical appliances with a whole section reserved for home appliances from television sets, fridges, fans, microwave ovens, cookers among other items.
“We have identified the first distributor in Machakos county and are in talks with several others in Nairobi who will stock our finished products,” he said.
Mr Welhi added the firm decided to invest in do-it-yourself products on realising Kenya lacked such a facility that would see customers buy ready-to-assemble home furniture.
“This is a one stop shop set-up whereby our sister company China Wu Yi Precast Factory will build houses that we shall proceed to fix fittings as well as furnish the same for our Kenyan customers to move in,” he said.
Mr Welhi said they are also in talks with a local landowner for purchase of land to put up a manufacturing base for its products.