Numero Uno, a fashion reseller for Inditex range of products is set to launch in Uganda.
The manufacturer and distributor of apparels, footwear, and accessories is popular for denim jeans, shirts, jackets, and sweat shirts for men, women, and children.
In Uganda, Numero Uno will open two stores in November – one at the Arena Mall (Nsambya) and another, a 758 square meter store at Metroplex Shopping Center in Naalya. The stores will resell popular Inditex brands among them Zara, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius and Jack & Jones that cater for the upscale market.
Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies, selling clothing, accessories, shoes, beauty products and perfumes.
Joining the Ugandan market that has other international fashion brands like Hummel, LC Waikiki, Adidas and PUMA.
Numero Uno will be an addition to the existing set of anchor tenants for Metroplex among them Carrefour, Woolworths and Century Cinemax.
Sweetly Defined, a restauranter, has also taken up 225 square meters for an all-day dining menu curated to the local taste, and a terrace with cosmopolitan elegance and fantastic views of the Nothern By-pass, providing guests with a stylish, informal venue.
On Wednesday, property management firm, Knight Frank Uganda which manages Metroplex Shopping Center, hosted a broad spectrum of retailers to a business breakfast to interest them into taking up space at the complex. Knight Frank made a case for former tenants and prospectives presenting to them opportunities that await retailers looking to establish or expand their brands into the node.
Marc Du Toit, the Head of Retail, Knight Frank Uganda, says; “We are now at a point where obviously we have the Carrefour Market; we have a newly installed world class Cinema, we have Woolworths which has also been refurbished and we now have Numero Uno which is an international multi-branded fashion store entering from the 1st November. We’ve bedded down all the big boxes within the shopping centre, and it’s now the time, and the reason we have engaged today with smaller retailers that we lost to the surrounding nodes and strip line shopping over the redevelopment and refurbishment period and we are saying we are now ready for business.”
Metroplex which in 2019 was acquired by Gateway Delta, a private real estate development company registered in Mauritius, comprises 13,135 square meters of Gross Lettable Area.
Since then, Gateway Delta has invested in refurbishing the property as well as redeveloping key access roads and infrastructure around Naalya.
The shopping centre is now looking to tap into the fastest growing catchment area that comprises Bweyogerere Division, Kira Division (Naalya as village within Kira), Namugongo Division, and a Portion of Nakawa Division, with a combined population of 653,710 people.
Currently, Inditex has physical presence in only 4 African countries; Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and South Africa.
Kampala’s formalized retail market is yet to get back to pre-Covid trading levels. The sector was negatively impacted by the Covid pandemic due to the curfews especially because the peek trading time in Kampala is between 7pm and 9pm.
Although Du Toit couldn’t name brands, he says there are numerous international retailers set to enter the Uganda market.
Jaffar Muslim, the Director of Century Cinemax, the largest cinema operators in the East Africa region, said the story for Century Cinemax in Naalya is so far looking good, attesting to the decentralization of the Central Business District into Kampala’s suburbia.
He said business is picking up following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, considering cinemas were top of activities that were suspended due to the lack of social distancing.
“We opened a week after lockdown, on 6th January 2022. Growth was slow due to curfew. Now we have been operating 15 months. We are happy and getting the clients we want, thanks to titles like Black Panther, Avatar, John Wick, Fast X,” Jaffar said.
The Naalya cinema sells close to 10,000 tickets on a good day.
“There’s a big market here, people are spending on food. Given the apartments that have come up around Naalya, there is demand. It makes sense (for tenants looking to set up shop at Metroplex) to come in early. Like we (Century Cinemax) did at Acacia Mall,” he told prospective tenants.
Turkish clothing retailer, LC Waikiki is also set to open (at Metroplex) its third store in Uganda having been set back by the earthquake tragedy in Turkey which affected the supply chains. Currently, LC Waikiki has three stores in Kampala – at Acacia Mall, Victoria Mall and Arena Mall.
Knight Frank says that with the anchor tenant mix at Metroplex fully constituted, now it is time to get the complimentary retailers such as moms and pops, banking, service orientation, Tech and cellular operators.
