Shoprite, the largest supermarket chain in Zambia, has today opened its 25th Supermarket store in Zambia in Chililabombwe at an investment of K40 million.

This is also Shoprite Zambia’s second wholly owned shopping mall after the first one in Livingstone.

Shoprite general manager, Charles Bota explained that the project was built by a Zambian main contractor, Velos Enterprises Ltd, who created about 200 jobs at the construction phase of the mall.

Shoprite itself has created 140 jobs.

Mr Bota said, in total, Shoprite has created 3,200 direct jobs and 1, 200 indirect jobs such as security, cleaning, merchandisers across the country.

“All of these are Zambians. This is in line with Shoprite’s commitment to benefit Zambians with pensionable employment,” he said.

Shoprite owns 16 of their 25 store buildings of which 7 were built from scratch and 9 were bought as existing stores.

The two shopping malls, Mosi-oa-Tunya and Chililabombwe, are among those built from scratch.

“This is Shoprite not just renting, but putting actual money into the ground; a fact and record that no other foreign retailer can boast of. It clearly indicates Shoprite is in Zambia to stay,” Mr Bota said.

The Chililabombwe store will offer its customers more than 13,000 grocery and non-food lines. Of these, about 70 per cent are sourced from Zambian suppliers and Zambian agents.

“This is in line with the Republican President’s desire to see a healthy balance of local lines on our shelves and it cements Shoprite’s commitment to support local suppliers and entrepreneurs,” Mr Bota said.

Mr Bota said that all of this continues to show that Shoprite remains committed to serving the people of Zambia for the very long-term.