Leading Nigerian retailer, Artee Group is planning to open one hundred shopping outlets in the country over the next six years.

To achieve this, Artee, who owns of SPAR and Park ‘n Shop, will be investing heavily in real estate by developing shops and malls for itself and others. The shops will be in hyper format units with 400-500 shops located within each shopping outlet.

“We are setting up base in Nigeria to work with real estate developers to establish various formats of SPAR outlets and encourage our employees to grow within,” Haresh Keswani, the group Managing Director told BusinessDay.

He stated that the investment plan is part of the company’s move to explore areas that have not been exploited in Nigerian retail business.

As part of its business plan, Haresh revealed that Artee group will be setting up infrastructure to co-ordinate various small scale farmers to add value to their products and stores through packaging and supply.

“This alone has benefitted the farmers by reducing drastically their losses which occur as a result of poor transportation and lack of suitable packaging. It also benefits the consumers through better pricing. This is a continuous programme focused on processors, not only our employees but SMEs who aspire to adopt global standards. We also assist SMEs with loans from banks.”

Since its foray into the Nigerian market in 2008, Atree group has become one of Nigeria’s leading business houses with multiple businesses spanning across the consumption space. While retail forms the core business activity of Artee, the group’s subsidiaries are also present in manufacturing, real estate, exports among many others.

The group’s speciality retail outlet include Park ‘n’ Shop,  Supermarket Chain SPAR,  Home & Office Decor’ Millenium, table water brand Cascade, premium lighting Searchlight, Quick Serve Restaurant  as well as Cakes ‘n’ Bakes.

Over the years, retail business in Nigeria has improved, thanks to the continuous increase in population in its urban areas.