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Naivas Supermarket, Kenya’s largest homegrown retail chain, now led by Mauritian tycoon Arnaud Lagesse’s IBL Group, delivered strong results for the 2025 financial year, with both profit and revenue rising sharply despite a tough economic climate.
For the year ended June 30, 2025, the retailer posted a 43.4 percent jump in net profit to Ksh2.45 billion ($19 million), compared with Ksh1.71 billion ($13.1 million) a year earlier. Revenue grew 21.6 percent to Ksh114.45 billion ($887 million) from Ksh94.15 billion ($729 million) in fiscal 2024.
The results come as leadership transitions to Andreas von Paleske, who now heads Naivas on behalf of Mauritius-based IBL Group. His appointment marks a new chapter for the chain, which had been steered by the Mukuha family for more than three decades.
Naivas drives IBL’s East Africa growth
The retailer, Kenya’s largest supermarket chain by market share, which was founded by the late businessman Peter Mukuha Kago, continued to expand its national footprint as an operating subsidiary of Mauritian conglomerate IBL Group, adding new outlets to reach 110 stores across urban and mid-sized towns.
IBL, said East Africa now accounts for 37 percent of the group’s total revenue, with Naivas as the principal driver. The conglomerate’s retail cluster, which includes Naivas, recorded a 79 percent jump in operating profit during the period.
“The performance of our international operations, particularly Naivas, demonstrates that our Beyond Borders strategy is delivering,” Ireland Blyth Limited (IBL) Group CEO Arnaud Lagesse said in the company’s Integrated Report.
IBL credited Naivas’s performance for reinforcing its leadership position in Kenya and helping transform the group from a “Mauritian champion” into a “regional leader.”
Naivas ownership shifts to IBL Group
Founded in 1990 by the late Peter Mukuha Kago as a small shop in Rongai, Naivas has grown into Kenya’s leading retail powerhouse. Total assets expanded to Ksh60.02 billion ($464.57 million) from Ksh51.02 billion ($394.94 million), marking a 17.7 percent increase. Equity attributable to owners increased to KSh30.77 billion ($238.17 million).
The founders' family, which began divestment in 2021, divested further to Mauritius-based IBL Group, which acquired a 40 percent stake in Naivas International in June 2022 through Mambo Retail Ltd., meaning that IBL was effectively 26.32 percent at the time of divestment.
Later that year, the Mukuha family sold an additional 8.5 percent stake for about Ksh3.7 billion ($31.5 million). In July 2023, IBL announced plans to raise Mambo Retail’s ownership to 51 percent, giving it a controlling interest, while the Mukuha heirs, Martha Waithera, Grace Muthoni, and David Kimani, own a 49-percent stake in Naivas through their investment entity, Gakiwawa Family.
