The Expansion of Choppies into Africa

Description

The Expansion of Choppies into Africa: Abstract

The Expansion of Choppies into Africa is a case study by Laurence Beder and Angie Urban.

On a Saturday morning in early October 2015, Choppies chief executive officer (CEO), Ramachandran Ottapathu, made his weekly visit to a Choppies store. While watching the familiar scenes in the Choppies superstore in Gaborone, he considered the company’s strategy to extend its African footprint. Choppies was the leading supermarket chain in Botswana, targeting the lower- to middle-income sectors. The company had 134 stores in three countries: 75 in Botswana, 38 in South Africa and 21 in Zimbabwe. Its major strategic objective was to increase its overall number of stores to 200, and the number of African countries it operated in to six, by the end of 2016. Ottapathu wondered how Choppies could achieve this objective while still growing value for shareholders.

Teaching objectives

The objective of the case is to enable the students to understand the importance of an integrated strategy as it expands its business on the African continent. It aims to enable students to:

• Think holistically about business strategy
• Appreciate the nuances of doing business in Africa
• Recognise the important components of a strategy of growth into Africa
• Explain the roles of the various business elements in an expansion strategy