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Business Reporter
RETAIL chain Choppies Supermarkets, scooped the Outstanding Transformational Business award at the 2014 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (AAE) held in Rwanda recently.Choppies, who have a substantial presence in Zimbabwe, were named by the African Leadership Network as the winner in the category “Outstanding Transformational Business”.
Known as the “Oscars” of Entrepreneurs in Africa, the AAE are a prestigious awards programme that identifies four of the leading entrepreneurs in Africa each year.
“Over the last seven years, this programme has awarded over $1.8 million in prizes to 35 of the leading entrepreneurs in Africa. Choppies was competing against companies from 33 countries, three of these companies, Bidco (Kenya), Aksal (Morocco), and Choppies (Botswana) reached the finals in the category for transformational business.
“Choppies was shortlisted in this category for the transformation the organisation has caused in retailing in this part of the world, transforming the lives of rural Botswana, women, people living with disability, and a revolutionary change in a number of employee-related metrics,” said the retail group in a statement.
The group said it also won the people’s choice awards for this category, which was conducted by public online voting.
Choppies chief executive officer Ramachandran Ottapathu said: “We treat this as a stamp of approval on our efforts in giving better value to our consumers and our community at large. What we’ve done in transforming our organisation and our leadership model was much superior to the other businesses that we were competing with.
“The secret behind this win was ethical leadership, hard work and dedication to the core. We’re proud to be the first Botswana-born brand to be a winner at the African Awards for Entrepreneurship”.
Presently, the retail group has 14 stores trading in Bulawayo and intends to open more branches in other parts of Zimbabwe.
Choppies has more than 100 supermarkets in South Africa, and Botswana including those in Zimbabwe.
Outside Zimbabwe, the retail chain’s footprint extends to rural locations which have been traditionally underserviced in the retail sector, taking stores to population centres, and maintaining convenient shop hours and affordable prices for the consumer.
Online Reporter