Speaking at a press briefing held at PTC’s headquarters in Blantyre, Company Chief Executive Officer Ken Mthuzi said they have taken the decision after looking at the profitability and logistics of the shops.

“We noted that in some areas our shops were just 10 or 20 metres away from each other. This was not bringing any benefit to our business,” said Mthuzi.

Further, Mthuzi hinted that some of the shops were not making any profits hence they thought of shutting down some of them.

On the way forward, Mthuzi said they have closed the shops in order to open other new modern shops under the Spar brand.

“That we have closed the shops, we are now opening new shops which will meet the dynamic needs of today’s consumers. As a starter, we are opening a Spar shop at Northgate Arcade and Kudya in Blantyre,” he said.

Responding to fears of staff retrenchment, the Chief Executive Officer said the closure will not affect any of the 202 staff members who were placed in the closed shops.

“Workers who were in these shops will be transferred to the remaining ones. We will make sure not a single staff member is rendered jobless,” he assured.

The closure will heavily affect Neno, Chitipa and Nsanje districts as they will be without any People’s shop.

Among the closed the shops are Chilomoni, Chileka, Magalasi and Dalton Road in Blantyre, Luchenza in Thyolo, Muloza in Mulanje, Ntcheu People’s and Chintheche in Nkhatabay.