This week Julius Kipng’etich resigned as the chief executive officer at Uchumi.
His two year stay at the troubled supermarket was a total failure. Most Uchumi supermarket employees have a near-unanimous verdict that Julius was disappointing.
“He has been here for two years and left us worse off than we were. When he came we still had food on the shelves,” one employee told a local daily.
Uchumi’s branches are empty of both products and customers.
“The picture is the same in three city Uchumi outlets in Nairobi. At Nairobi’s Aga Khan Walk, creative stacking does hide the fact that there is only one brand of water on sale. At Uchumi Koinange, an outlet that once served thousands of customers a day, there were only 10. At Uchumi Jipange, on Thika Road, dust gathers in refrigerators where packets of fresh milk and yoghurt once sat. The supermarket is silent, the bustle of shopping replaced by the fluorescent hum of the lights and the quiet chatter of idle employees, waiting for customers, who will not come,” a report in the Business Daily says.
Uchumi is currently surviving on the hope that the government will come through with a loan it promised last year to help replenish Uchumi’s shelves, especially during this festive season.
“Employees and loyal customers have borne the brunt of this state of affairs in equal measure. “Uchumi paid its workers for the first time in three months this week. But November’s salary remains outstanding.”