The Full Basket: How Naivas CEO Andreas von Paleske Stocks Up For Success

The story of Naivas Supermarkets starts – rather surprisingly – with the opening of Tuskys supermarket, back in 1990, under its founder, Joram Kamau. The shop, which had started out life in Rongai, Nakuru county, as Gitwe General Stores, proved too small for Kamau’s ambitions, and he moved to Nairobi to start Tuskys while leaving Gitwe to his two nephews, David Kimani and Simon Mukuha.

And that was how Naivas was born in 1990. The Mukuha siblings – now joined by their father Peter Mukuha and two other siblings – quickly turned it into a force to be reckoned with, going from that flagship shop to today’s 113 outlets all around Kenya, and to taking its place as Kenya’s second-biggest supermarket chain.

The business eventually grew big enough to accommodate external investors… and the entry of Andreas von Paleske, 48, who started as its Head of Strategy in 2017, and is currently its CEO. This week, he sits down with WeeTracker to discuss the triumphs and losses the business has fa...