Kenyan fast food chain Big Square is preparing to open a second branch in Nairobi’s Central Business District this week, just days after launching its first city outlet. The move, reported on Monday, November 19, 2018, intensifies the brand’s push into the capital’s busiest retail corridor.
The new restaurant will sit at the junction of Moi Avenue and Mama Ngina Street, placing it in direct competition with Pizza Inn and Chicken Inn. Big Square’s other CBD branch is at the junction of Muindi Mbingu and Standard streets. The company said the two Nairobi investments cost Sh80 million.
The expansion does not stop in Nairobi. Big Square said it planned to open another branch at Two Rivers Mall in December 2018, then move into Eldoret in the first quarter of 2019. The company also said it had identified other major towns where it wants a presence by the end of next year.
Carolle Kariuki, head of marketing at Interstrat Limited, Big Square’s parent company, said the second half of 2018 had delivered rapid growth for the chain. She pointed to the October 2018 launch of a drive-thru at Bellevue on Mombasa Road and a 150-seater outlet in Nyali, Mombasa, at Cinemax.
Big Square’s latest rollout follows a March 2018 cash injection from a South African private equity fund. Uqalo invested Sh404 million, or $4 million, to buy an undisclosed stake in the business. The firm said the funding would help grow its footprint from nine stores to 30 over the next four years.
