Nairobi, KENYA: Nakumatt Lifestyle has been evicted from its premises at Hazina Trade Centre in Nairobi over rent arrears accumulated for the past four months.
This is after National social security fund NSSF on Friday obtained a court order to shut the supermarket down.
“These premises have been closed. All inquiries to be directed to the landlords’ managing agents,” NSSF said in a notice.
The landlord of the premise complained that the supermarket had defaulted on rent for a while leading to this extreme measure.
In October, Nakumatt shut down its Westgate Mall located in Westland Nairobi which was the fourth Key branch to be closed down in less than three months.
Earlier this year, the retailer shut its Ronald Ngala branch citing low sales and a branch in Uganda that had accumulated rent arrears estimated at about sh.8.5 million.
In May, the supermarket publicly announced plans to close its poorly performing branches in Kenya and Uganda as part of cost-cutting measures aimed at saving the retailers 1.5 billion annually.
In August this year, Nakumatt closed down its branch in Thika Road Mall barely a month after closing its outlet at NextGen Mall on Mombasa Road.
Nakumatt Holdings reached an agreement with Tuskys to take over its management in a deal expected to see the troubled retailer remain afloat.
The agreement will see Nakumatt access stock from suppliers using the Tuskys supermarket goodwill and value chain.
This will go a long way in helping the chain restock as suppliers had shied away from supplying them due to mounting debts.
Nakumatt has estimated in court papers that closing the chain would affect the livelihoods of more than 30,000 people, including 6,720 direct employees.
