Aggressive International M&A Market Penetration
Putting together a team to expand into additional international markets, in Southern Africa.
Situation
The 2008 recession, regional competition and Wal-Mart entering South Africa, and in addition a new corporate strategic growth initiative – international market penetration became imperative. To ensure increased shareholder value for future years, I put together a team to expand into additional international markets – Angola was selected.
Action Plan
- Build and execute an initial M&A strategy to acquire/ purchase an existing grocery business in Luanda, Angola and re-brand selected stores to the SPAR Brand and implement next phase of growth while transitioning long-term management of the business.
- Set-up initial field visits and established relationships with Luanda / Angolan business community, vendors, real-estate and government agencies.
- Recruited a professional management team including regional/ field COO, supply chain & logistics officer and CMO to strengthen grocery retail analytics, food product imports and store distributions and marketing capacity.
- Setup distribution network, freight forwarding and warehouse facilities in Port of Luanda to expedite product imports from Portugal and Cape Town, South Africa.
- Devised a regional retail store purchase, setup and rollout strategy, targeting ~10 grocery stores. Initiated grocery store joint-venture agreement (JV) with Angola privately owned company alongside continued franchising.
- Overhauled (Portuguese) product selection and pricing structure to improve sales volume, quality and ongoing customer service value.
- Recruited the in-house retail store design team to design retail grocery stores within the limits of a substantially reduced capital budget and meet the Luanda customer shopping experience needs/requirements.
- Developed funding scenarios and recruited new outside auditing company Deloitte to assist with foreign company law and banking transactions.
Results
- Negotiated and finalized retail franchise & distribution JV agreement with privately owned company in Luanda, Angola;
- Four new supermarkets opened in 2015.
- Developed sustainable business relationships with joint venture business partners which are expected to be both beneficial and profitable for both parties.
New Supermarkets
Opened in Luanda in 1st half of 2015
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