Sunday, February 26, 2023 – The owner of the controversial Chinese Square supermarket has finally broken his silence after Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary, Moses Kuria threatened to close his business over what he termed as pushing small businesses out of the market.
In an interview with one of the local dailies, China Square owner Lei Cheng, popularly known as Charlie, said he visited Kenya for the first time in September 2022.
He said during his visit, he toured various supermarkets and to his surprise, he found out that most cheap items that he knew had been imported from his country, China, had been overpriced in Kenya. Seeing a business opportunity, the 37-year-old flew back to his country and convinced some suppliers into setting up a store in Kenya.
After its inception on January 29, Cheng said the business started booming and in the first two weeks of operation, he made sales worth Sh 20 million.
“We opened this store on January 29 this year. We are barely a month old. In the first two weeks in business, our sales turnover was Sh20 million. Nowadays, on a bad day we sell goods worth Sh10 million,” Mr. Cheng disclosed.
Cheng’s business model seems to have annoyed Moses Kuria who threatened to close the supermarket over what he termed as pushing local traders out of business.
But Mr. Cheng in response said his business is legit and that what he is doing is to shield Kenyan consumers from being exploited by local businessmen.
“My business is legal and is centered on healthy competition. We have cooperated with all government directives for opening a business in Kenya and we are here to break the monopoly.
The people who are fighting us feel threatened because Kenyans now know we exist and we are not exploiting them in pricing. Kenya is a very good country and its people are very friendly. I was very shocked by trade minister Moses Kuria’s utterances because this may heavily slow down foreign investments in Kenya and I think the minister should support ethical businesses like the one we have here that create opportunities for Kenyans and pay huge taxes to the government,” said Cheng.
The Kenyan DAILY POST.