The Sarit Centre is Kenya’s first, biggest and busiest shopping mall. Opened in 1983, it is located in the affluent suburb of Westlands of Nairobi. It’s “City Within A City” concept of providing everything under one roof has since irrevocably changed retailing patterns and spurred shopping mall development throughout East Africa.
Westlands is a dynamic commercial growth-centre three-km from the capital’s central business district, at the axis of a road network to the affluent western and northern residential suburbs, which make up the Centre’s catchment area. Nairobi’s population exceeds 3 million people.
Of additional significance is the fact that The Sarit Centre is located just off Waiyaki Way, as this stretch of the dual-carriage All-Africa Highway to western Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire is named after an early Kikuyu leader.
The Sarit Centre now offers 250,000 sq.ft. of fully-serviced leased space (totally built-up area 500,000 sq.ft. on six levels) providing a carefully controlled tenant "mix" of supermarkets, shops, service outlets, offices, and entertainment.
A two-screen, 300 seat cinema, a health club with swimming pool, a 1,500 sq.ft. food court, included in Phase Two of construction is augmented by cafes and a new international exhibition centre.
A busy calendar of trade shows, cultural and community events, shopping promotions, including the popular Christmas promotion, Stick & Win!, is a major component of the Centre’s marketing strategy.
Shopper traffic currently averages nearly 20,000 daily, having doubled with the opening of the Uchumi Hyper-Market and additional shops and other facilities constructed in Phase Two. Traffic peaks at over 40,000 shoppers in a single day on the 24th December, Christmas Eve.
Effectively, The Sarit Centre is an inter-active shopping mall offering one-stop access to a complete range of supermarkets, stores, service outlets, entertainment, and professional and medical facilities unrivalled elsewhere in Kenya.
The Sarit Centre is an associate of the diversified group of companies which include Text Book Centre, Kartasi Limited, Soma Group Limited, Sarit Exhibitions and Promotions Limited, Soma Properties Limited, Book Distributors Limited and several more.
Two families, the Vidhu Ramji Shah family formerly of Muranga and the Jadavji Ratanji Rughani family of Karatina co-operated in building up the business group.
With the advice and blessing of Sat Guru Pujya Hariram Bapa, who much influenced their business philosophy in the early 1970’s the two families conceived, planned and built Kenya’s first-ever shopping centre with the appropiate slogan of "City Within A City".
©2004 The Sarit Centre
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