Now in Zambia

The South African retail group Massmart has opened its first home improvement store in the Builders Warehouse distribution line in Zambia. Located at the East Park Shopping Mall in Lusaka, it is the sixth Builders Warehouse store outside South Africa and the 39th Builders Warehouse store overall.
The new store has a trading area of 4 665 m² and an additional outdoor area of 6 393 m². The range on offer includes categories such as bathroom, building materials including cement, décor, electrical, flooring (tiles, laminates and carpets), hand and power tools, hardware, kitchen, lighting, outdoor, paint, plumbing, civil, pool, plumbing and security. 156 people are employed in the store.The company highlighted its sustainable activities during the planning of the new store to reduce the impact on the environment through energy efficiency, heat control efficiencies and water savings through a rainwater harvesting system. The store has been fitted with 100 per cent LED lights that will reduce the consumption of each light by 60 per cent. The roof is fitted with daylight harvesting domes that will eliminate the necessity to have all the lights burning in the store.

A state of the art building management system (BMS) has been installed, according to Massmart. This will regulate the switching on and off of lights when the daylight harvesting domes do not harvest sufficient light inside the store. The system will also control the air conditioners in the store and regulate the temperature. Builders Warehouse also conducts sustainability screenings on all hardwood timber products to ensure that the wood meets the requirements of the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

Interview with Karen Ferrini, Massbuild Africa directorWhat are Massmart’s activities in the home improvement sector in Zambia?
Builders stock a wide range of home improvement products to ensure complete project solutions. In addition, a number of services are also offered, including key, glass, timber and board cutting, board edging, remote control programming, pool water testing and kitchen design.
What are the target groups of the new store?
Builders caters for a wide range of groups including both large and small building and maintenance contractors, home and…