Cake maker plans Sh150m expansion as demand grows

KENYA – Cake City, which is part of the Pride Group, has budgeted Sh150 million to open 10 new shops in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu over the next year.

The group chief executive Hasnain Noorani said in an interview that the cake shop was looking to expand its presence in all the business districts in Nairobi.

Nairobi based cakes maker, Cake City, is set to open a new outlet in Parklands next month as part of plans for four new branches before end of the year. his Story

Cake City, which is part of the Pride Group, has budgeted Sh150 million to open 10 new shops in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu over the next year.

The Parklands branch will be followed by other outlets in South C and Lavington within the capital and another in Mombasa’s central business district.

Cake City, whose main branch is in Westlands, is among a group of companies owned by the Pride Group, which also owns the PrideInn Hotels and Conferencing chain of business hotels.

The group chief executive Hasnain Noorani said in an interview that the cake shop was looking to expand its presence in all the business districts in Nairobi.

“We have been getting requests from customers who have to travel all the way to Westlands so we want to set up more shops in Parklands, Lavington, Karen, Lang’ata, South C and South B for convenience,” he said.

The brand which is less than two years old already has three branches in Westlands, at Sarit Centre and the Thika Road Mall, offering a wide variety of cakes, pastries and recently venturing into baking bread.

The expansion plan includes setting up of two cake city shops in Nyali and within Mombasa CBD before opening single units in Kisumu and Eldoret.

“We are in the process of constructing three stores and acquiring four others, but we estimate the cost of each store to be between Sh8 and Sh10 million,” he said.

The Cake City chief executive, Shrikanth Walmiki said that the choice of location was also being influenced by the company’s desire to integrate a social café to the bakery.

“We have already captured the cake market, now we want to ride on that and integrate a simple café with sandwiches where people can have quick business meetings or quick walk-in lunches,” he said.

Besides the cake shop and hotels, Pride Group also owns, Glory Tours and Safaris, Glory Driving School, Glory Rent a Car, Juice Factory, Pride Exhibitions, Royal Kitchen and Pride Centre.

September 20, 2014; http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Cake-City-plans-Sh150m-expansion/-/539550/2455762/-/fl00kq/-/index.html