Game in Africa: Seizing the Opportunity

Abstract

By June 2010, Jan Potgieter, chief executive of the Johannesburg-based Massdiscounters — a division of Massmart — had gone some way to achieving his goal of “painting Africa pink” with the expansion of Game, one of the group’s large-format, general merchandise discounters, into the rest of the African continent. (Game’s corporate color was pink.) In that year, Game had stores in 11 other African countries, with plans to expand into another six in the near future. However, there was a strong possibility that a large international player would soon be entering the African market and competing directly with Game. Potgieter therefore had to consider whether Game’s Africa strategy was sound, or whether it needed to change so that Africa did indeed become pink and not different shades of blue.