Vusumuzi Dube
Nelson Gahadza
OK Zimbabwe says it is extending its sources of supply to countries like Turkey and China with the goal of diversifying its product assortments and landing the products cheaper for shoppers.
According to the company’s 2024 annual report, erratic supply of essential products was the biggest challenge in our supply chain during the financial year.
“The financial year saw an increase in the level of direct imports mainly from South Africa, with additional sources of supply coming onboard such as the Shoprite Group, Tradeport Group, and Food Lover’s Market Distribution.
“Going forward, we will be extending our sources of supply to countries like Turkey and China with the goal of diversifying our product assortments and landing the products cheaper for our shoppers,” reads the group’s annual report.
The company said its house brand strategy continues to grow as it seeks to close gaps in its assortments with its own products, which helps to improve product availability and also gives shoppers cheaper alternatives on the shelf.
“Our distribution centres are increasingly becoming more important as we centralise our procurement, helping us to have greater control over the movement of stock within our business,” OK Zimbabwe noted.
It noted that 27 percent of its turnover is now generated from products coming from its distribution centres and has seen this grow from 15 percent during the previous reporting period.
“We added four new 30-tonne boxed trucks to our delivery fleet, meaning that we are now able to service our delivery schedule without hiring third-party transport services, thereby reducing our overall cost of distribution by an average of US$40 000,00 per month,” said OK Zimbabwe.
The retail company said in alignment with OK Zimbabwe’s strategic goals, hardware across all retail outlets has been modernised.
It said the hardware upgrade included state-of-the-art servers and operational computers, which are equipped to run advanced security utilities.
“This will ensure robust protection against cyber threats,” it said.
The group said 99 percent of its stores now have dual wide-area network (WAN) links to ensure consistent network uptime for near real-time reporting.
Online Reporter