Nairobi News

HashtagHustleNews

Shell opens Kenya’s biggest station in Lavington worth Sh200m


Oil marketer Vivo Energy, which trades in Kenya under the Shell brand name, has opened a Sh200 million station in Lavington which it describes as its biggest outlet in Africa.

The outlet will host coffee chain Java House, fast food outlet KFC, Safe Dose pharmacy and White Rose Drycleaners.

It will also host a NIC Bank branch and a convenience store.

Vivo said the outlet was its single-largest investment among its service stations on the continent.

The oil marketer’s drive to increase its outlets in Kenya saw it oust Total to claim the top position in terms of local market share at 17.6 per cent in 2017, according to data from the Petroleum Institute of East Africa.

“We are excited by the opportunity to open this new location in Nairobi together with several of our convenience retailing partners. The establishment is a prime example of like-minded companies coming together with the primary objective of providing customer-centric solutions for their customers,” said Vivo Energy Kenya managing director Joe Muganda at Wednesday’s launch.

Mr Muganda said the company had noticed the impact of implementation of the eight per cent value added tax on fuel in September.

Further, the August demolition of one of its busiest outlets in Kileleshwa by the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) had affected its sales.

Vivo will continue its partnership with Java and Safe Dose pharmacy which also lost their premises at the Kileleshwa location which Nema said was sitting on the banks of Nairobi River.

Java announced at the beginning of this year that it would invest up to Sh1 billion in its expansion in the East African region, with majority of the new investments being in Kenya.