Pick 'n Pay franchise will buy from local farmers

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Monday August 30, 2010 00:00

Speaking during the official opening of the store last week, the Deputy Mayor of Selebi-Phikwe, Bathaedi Mponwane, said Pick 'n Pay would contribute to support the growth of small producers and integrate them into the urban retail market by souring fresh produce from them.

'The opening of Pick 'n Pay in Selebi-Phikwe comes at the right time when the government is struggling to diversify the economy of the town, which is heavily dependent on copper mining,' Mponwane said.

'It is my hope and wish that the supermarket will reduce unemployment in the town.'  The mayoralty is inundated with labour issues, mainly from private sector employees, he said, and appealed to Pick n Pay to be different by upholding the rights of workers.

The Director of Pick 'n Pay in Botswana, Chris Linder, said the supermarket will support local farmers by purchasing from them.

The Selebi-Phikwe store is the fourth Score-to-Pick n Pay conversion in Botswana after a successful conversion of three stores in Botswana and 52 stores in South Africa over the past two years.

It brings the total number of Pick 'n Pay stores in Botswana to seven. Linder said the conversion programme started in 2007 and that under it, Pick 'n Pay's Africa Division focuses on developing and growing black entrepreneurs for the group's franchise division.

'We are excited to be associated with the owner, Ruta Krupavaram, because she has shown passion for the business,' he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, SPEDU Coordinator Kago Moshashane described the arrival of the supermarket in the mining town as a milestone in the region's economic diversification efforts and in terms of injection of funds to infrastructure development, job creation and variety and quality of food and other household consumer goods.

The Member of Parliament for Selebi-Phikwe East, Nonofo Molefhi, saw it as an affirmation of the existence of business opportunities in Selebi-Phikwe and an emphatic rejection of the notion of a dying town.  Molefhi said Pick 'n Pay should not be like other chain stores that sell low quality products to the Botswana market but good quality product to the South African market.