Notify Logistics, a leading supporter of small businesses in the retail sector in Kenya has announced that it is closing after helping more than 10,000 small businesses for five years.
The business, which was founded in 2018, has announced the closing of its Notify Mall on Moi Avenue in Nairobi. Additionally, it ran a store in Mombasa, which has since been shut down.
The business’s business plan was based on renting out space to numerous small businesses that couldn’t otherwise afford to either hire someone else or lease space on their own.
The Ksh20,000 annual fee, or roughlyKsh1,700 each month, was paid by the firms for the shelf space and shop workers. The concept also eliminated the requirement for business licenses.
Helen Nyambura, one of the directors of Notify Logistics said that It has becoming increasingly difficult for them to maintain, and they are becoming unsustainable with the vendors.
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“We were paying Ksh800,000 per month for the three floors and we were just facing auctioneers. We stopped taking vendors and we also had issues with management. It has been a salad of many issues.”
Notify Logistics revealed in August of last year that it had raised Ksh45 million in a seed round to support startup businesses and their expansion in the retail industry.
An announcement about the closure of the Moi Avenue location had been sent by Notify Logistics.
“Dear vendors, we regret the closure of Notify Mall in Moi Avenue, Nairobi. We request all vendors to stock out their operations on Monday and Tuesday, August 30 is our last day. Sorry for any inconveniences caused,” the company said on its Instagram page.
By providing shelf space to businesses at prices that were lower than those for typical retail space in 2018, the company became the nation’s first to use the rent-a-shelf strategy. The action, which focused on retail and e-commerce companies, was anticipated to lower the operating costs for small firms.
After Kune Foods, a startup that failed to raise Sh30 million from a French investor for operations due to mounting costs that the business said made operations unsustainable, Notify Logistics is the most recent startup to shut its doors.
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