Carrefour Kenya Plans Nine New Stores in Second Half of 2026

Carrefour Kenya will open nine new stores before the end of 2026, according to Majid Al Futtaim’s latest investor presentation. The retailer operated 34 stores across the country as of June 2026, split between 11 hypermarkets and 23 supermarkets.

The expansion sits inside Majid Al Futtaim’s wider H1 2026 retail pipeline, which lists 51 new store openings across four markets for the second half of the year: 20 in the UAE, 13 in Egypt, 9 in Kenya, and 9 spread across the Group’s remaining markets. Kenya’s share puts it ahead of long standing markets such as Oman, Bahrain and Qatar in terms of new store count for the period, a signal of where Majid Al Futtaim sees room to grow.

Kenya carries the retail division through a tough half

Group wide, Majid Al Futtaim’s Retail business had a difficult first half. Revenue fell 6% year on year, driven mainly by weaker non food sales and what the Group called more challenging consumer conditions, particularly in the UAE. But markets outside the six Gulf states told a different story.

Revenue there grew 4% year on year, with Egypt and Kenya singled out for particularly strong growth. That split matters for how Carrefour Kenya’s expansion should be read: it isn’t happening in isolation, it’s happening in one of the few pockets of the Retail business that grew while the core Gulf market softened.

Group CEO Ahmed Galal Ismail pointed to that kind of contribution when discussing the half year results.

“These results show the dynamism of Majid Al Futtaim’s diversified and integrated portfolio in practice,” he said. “Across our 14 markets, the operational strength of our businesses is reflected in the contribution of multiple growth engines, from development and destinations to digital platforms and customer businesses, while disciplined execution continues to strengthen profitability.”

Online sales offered another bright spot for the division. Digital revenue across Retail grew 11% to AED 1.8 billion and now makes up 17% of total Retail revenue, evidence that Carrefour’s e commerce push is scaling alongside its physical footprint rather than competing with it.

A decade of steady growth in Kenya

Carrefour’s Kenyan expansion has followed a consistent path since Majid Al Futtaim entered the market. Khusoko tracked the retailer’s push into Mombasa back in 2020, when the chain operated just eight stores nationwide and set out plans to add three coastal outlets. By 2023, the count had climbed past 20, and Khusoko reported the opening of a 20th store at Business Bay Mall in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area.

Growth continued through 2024 and into 2025. Khusoko covered the opening of a 24-hour store at GTC Mall in Westlands, which brought the national total to 23, and later the retailer’s 29th store, a round the clock outlet in Mombasa’s central business district. By January 2025, a new Rhapta Promenade store in Nairobi pushed the total to 27 and, according to Khusoko’s reporting at the time, brought Carrefour’s direct employment in Kenya to more than 2,800 people.

That job creation record has stayed a consistent theme in the retailer’s public statements. Speaking after the Rhapta Promenade opening, Christophe Orcet, Regional Director for East Africa at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, said the company remained “committed to aligning our business with Kenya’s socio-economic development goals,” adding that the store would create over 45 direct jobs on top of an expanding base of local suppliers, with 99% of products sourced within the country.

Store count by market

Not without friction

The expansion has not gone entirely unchallenged. In 2024, a Kenyan court upheld a ruling against Carrefour over supplier agreement disputes, though it set aside a broader order to amend contracts with suppliers who were not party to the case. Khusoko covered the ruling at the time, noting that Carrefour welcomed the court’s recognition of its right to fair legal proceedings while committing to fairness under Kenya’s Code of Retail Practice, a framework the company says it helped found.

What the numbers signal for Kenya’s retail sector

Nine planned stores in six months would be Carrefour Kenya’s fastest expansion pace on record, faster than the roughly six store per year pace the chain kept through 2023 and 2024. It comes as Majid Al Futtaim leans harder into markets outside the Gulf to offset softer UAE consumer demand, and as the Group’s overall EBITDA rose 11% to AED 2.5 billion despite revenue growing just 1%, a gap the company attributes to higher margin businesses like development and digital carrying more weight in the portfolio.

For Kenyan shoppers and mall developers, the practical effect is straightforward: more Carrefour anchor tenancies are coming, likely spread across Nairobi, Mombasa and possibly newer commercial developments in secondary towns, continuing a pattern where the retailer follows Kenya’s expanding mall pipeline rather than building standalone stores. Whether that pace holds through 2027 will depend on how much further Majid Al Futtaim is willing to lean into East Africa as a growth engine while its home market works through a harder patch.

Carrefour Kenya Revenue Grows to AED 1.39 Billion in 2025