Naivas’ Recipe For Success: Interview With CEO Andreas von Paleske

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. Following the death of Simon Mukuha, David Kimani became the sole founder, but bringing in more family members to help with the running of the shops.

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 faced, why Naivas remains one of only two family-owned retail chains to survive and thrive, and what we can all look forward to from the business in future.

Q: You have a degree in Economics from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from from Harvard Business School. Why economics?

A: I guess I was always interested in understanding how the global economy operates – how countries are managed, but also at a micro level, how businesses run. But the key component of my career really started after my MBA, when I moved into private equity. I invested in branded consumers businesses with Actis LLP for over a decade, initially in Europe and the US, and then subsequently in emerging markets, and that became a passion.