Tana Africa Capital and Sango Capital have made a minority investment in Sundry Markets, one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing modern grocery retailers.
Founded in 2015 by Ebele Enunwa, Sundry Markets operates the Marketsquare brand of supermarkets and convenience stores, providing a superior shopping experience to customers and a one-stop destination for prepared and packaged food, fresh baked goods, fruits and vegetables, butchery products and beverages, as well as personal and home care products across different store formats.
Spurred on by the Founder and Chief Executive, and in partnership with Sango, Sundry Markets has grown rapidly to 21 stores today, disrupting the grocery retail sector and demonstrating exceptional financial and operational performance across economic cycles. The Company has created over 2,000 jobs directly since inception and many more indirectly through its 100% localised supply chain and several small & medium scale suppliers.
Now powered by Tana and Sango working together as active and long-term investors, in partnership with the Company’s highly experienced Founder, and backed by a strong management team in a business with exceptional growth potential, Sundry Markets is well positioned to realise its long-term vision of becoming the leading grocery retailer in Nigeria.
“The successful partnership with Ebele Enunwa at Sundry Markets represents the transformational potential of private capital when put in the right hands. Starting out with an entrepreneurial idea to provide everyday goods and services to ordinary Nigerians in world-class, clean and convenient shopping environments, Ebele has been able to prove that good execution delivers excellent outcomes not only for investors, but also for the broader Nigerian economy,” said Charles Mwebeiha, Managing Director and Co-Founder at Sango Capital. “Modernizing the retail sector leads to better quality jobs, better experiences for customers, improved supply chain and sales channels for suppliers, and more tax revenue for the government. Sango has proudly backed a strong entrepreneur who has managed to continue growing his business through very tough times and we are grateful for the continued partnership.”
“We are delighted to partner with Ebele Enunwa, the Founder of Sundry Markets and his team, who have built a great business that is well positioned to capitalize on the exciting growth opportunities in the Nigerian grocery retail market,” commented Mark Tindall, Managing Director at Tana Capital. “We plan to work with Ebele and the Sundry Markets team, as well as fellow shareholders to contribute the learnings from Tana’s other retail investments across the African continent so that Sundry Markets can develop into a world-class Nigerian-founded retail company.”
“With the support of our investors, we set out to establish a world-class retail business professionally run by Nigerians, and for Nigerians,” said Ebele Enunwa, Founder and Chief Executive of Sundry Markets. “The modern retail sector in Nigeria continues to grow tremendously and we are committed to continue serving our customers around the country by offering them a one-stop shopping experience for all their home cooking, personal care and home care needs.” Mr. Enunwa also presented his vision for the Company’s future, noting, “We have an ambitious plan to expand the existing store footprint to at least 50 stores and to grow our revenues fourfold by 2025. We have benefitted from the partnership with Sango Capital and in particular their appreciation of what it takes for entrepreneurs to succeed on the African continent and their thought leadership that has challenged us to continuously grow and improve. We welcome Tana Capital into the partnership and hope to similarly benefit from collaborating with them.”
