What a Quickmart Share Buys in Earnings

On an average day, about Ksh 2.2 million^A50,427,637 ÷ 64 stores ÷ 365 days = Ksh 2.16m a day; profit 1,508,574 ÷ revenue 50,427,637 = 2.99%View full workings (A) → passes through a Quickmart store, and for every Ksh 100, the company keeps about Ksh 3 as profit.¹ That grocer is the business going on sale. Quickmart has announced its intention to float half of its shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. Sokoni Retail Kenya Limited holds the entire issued share capital and now proposes to sell 2 billion shares, with an option to sell up to 15% more. The company trades in everyday consumer goods from 72 leased stores across 16 counties, and describes itself as the second-largest supermarket chain in Kenya by store count and turnover. The announcement is not an offer. No offer can be made until the company publishes an approved information memorandum.² What the announcement does carry is five years of results, a half-year, and the company's own forecast for the next two. Those figures are enough to show what a share in Quickmart buys in earnings, and how it made those earnings.

Quickmart's profit has risen every year since 2021, and most of the rise came from wider margins rather than higher sales^BSales ×1.96, net margin ×4.21, profit ×8.26; in logarithms the margin is 68% of the riseView full workings (B) →. Between 2021 and 2025, sales doubled to Ksh 50.4 billion while profit rose more than eightfold, and the gap between the two is the widening margin. In 2021, 70 cents of every hundred of sales remained as profit, compared with Ksh 3 in 2025. How could the margin move so steeply? Most of the answer lies in store costs. The accounting cost of the stores, their depreciation and the lease charge, grew more slowly than sales and accounted for over half of the wider margin^CPre-tax margin 1.05% → 4.30%, a gain of 3.25 points; store costs fell 1.82 points (56%), gross margin rose 0.92 (28%)View full workings (C) →, while a slightly better margin on the goods supplied accounted for more than a quarter. The gross margin itself has held between 21% and 22% throughout^DGross profit ÷ revenue: 21.05%, 21.26%, 20.96%, 22.00%, 21.97% for 2021 to 2025View full workings (D) →. A net margin of 3% sits above the emerging-market grocers' aggregate and is level with Shoprite's^EDamodaran EM grocery, 97 firms, 1.63%; Shoprite 7,930 ÷ 274,750 = 2.89%; TotalEnergies 2,170,880 ÷ 104,019,367 = 2.09%View full workings (E) →. Across the 97 grocers in that aggregate, the industry's figure was 1.6% as of January 2026,³ and Shoprite, the South African grocer, kept 2.9% in its year to June 2026.⁴ Of listed companies on the NSE, Quickmart's model is similar to TotalEnergies', which also moves large volumes on thin margins through a national network of sites. This fuel seller keeps Ksh 2.1 for every hundred of its 2025 revenue, compared with Quickmart's Ksh 3.⁵ The company's own forecast expects to keep Ksh 3.6 in every hundred in 2026 and Ksh 4.2 in 2027^FProjected profit ÷ revenue: 2,102,803 ÷ 58,204,588 = 3.61%; 2,848,316 ÷ 67,435,723 = 4.22%View full workings (F) →.

Quickmart's sales grew fastest when it opened the most stores, and slowed as openings fell. Ten stores opened in 2022 and sales rose 35%^GYear-end stores 45, 55, 59, 64, then 68 at June 2026; sales +35.4%, +18.5%, +13.3%, +8.0%; H1 2026 doubled ÷ FY2025 = 1.081View full workings (G) →; four opened in 2023 and sales rose 18%; five opened across 2024 and 2025, and sales rose 13% and then 8%; four more opened in the first half of 2026, and sales ran about 8% above the 2025 rate.⁶ The company now plans to open 10 to 15 stores a year, returning to its 2022 pace. Revenue per store rose from about Ksh 700 million in 2022 to about Ksh 800 million in 2025, counting the average number of stores open each year, a rise of about 15%^H34,781,302 ÷ 50 average stores = Ksh 696m; 50,427,637 ÷ 63 = Ksh 800m; ×1.151View full workings (H) →. How much of that rise came from busier stores, and how much from the same goods costing more? The answer bears on whether the wider margin lasts. If the same stores serve more shoppers, rent is spread over more goods and the gain can hold. If the growth came mainly from inflation, the stores are selling about the same amount, and the gain holds only for as long as the lease costs do. Prices across the economy rose about 17% over those years,⁷ so after inflation, each store sold about the same as before^ICPI 1.0767 × 1.0450 × 1.0407 = 1.171; 1.151 ÷ 1.171 = 0.98View full workings (I) →. The stores did not become busier; the growth came from opening new ones, and much of the wider margin came from a store charge that barely moved while prices rose. The accounting cost of occupying the stores rose a tenth between 2022 and 2025 while sales rose by nearly half^JRight-of-use depreciation + finance charge: 1,984,583 → 2,181,483, +9.9%; sales +45.0%View full workings (J) →. A share in Quickmart is a share in the plan to keep opening 10 to 15 stores a year and in what its landlords ask at escalation and at renewal.

The company reports a return on invested capital of 42.8% for 2025, without explaining how it is measured. Whatever the basis, a margin of three shillings in a hundred produces a return of that size only if the capital behind the sales is small. For Quickmart, it is. At mid-2026, the company had about four shillings of its own money tied up in the business for every hundred of 2025 sales. Three shillings of profit on four of its own money is a return of about four-fifths a year on net assets^KNet assets 1.9bn ÷ revenue 50,427,637 = 3.77%; profit 1,508,574 ÷ 1.9bn = 79%, against the company's 42.8%View full workings (K) →, nearly double the company's figure, so the company's measure must count capital the balance sheet does not show, and the largest such item is its leases. TotalEnergies has about Ksh 32 for every hundred, partly because it owns more of its sites. Its owned property and plant are about four times what it leases^LEquity 33,669,543 ÷ net revenue 104,019,367 = 32.4%; PPE 13,450,101 ÷ right-of-use assets 3,300,025 = 4.08View full workings (L) →. By its own account, Quickmart owns none of its 72 stores, and its suppliers finance much of the stock on its shelves. For a chain that buys its premises, 10 to 15 new stores a year would require heavy borrowing or selling new shares. Quickmart's model shifts most of that outlay to its landlords and suppliers. The landlord provides the building and suppliers finance much of the stock, so each new store needs mainly fittings and equipment. In the company's 2026 projection, the profit left after the planned dividend, plus the depreciation charge, a cost that takes no cash, comes to about Ksh 900 million^M2,102,803 − 2,000,000 + 773,572 + 35,554 = 911,929View full workings (M) →; with the supplier credit that new stores bring, that sum would cover most of a ten-store year^NSupplier credit 4.0bn ÷ 68 = 58.8m a store; EUR 14.8m ÷ 10 at Ksh 124 = 184m a store; (912 + 588) ÷ 1,837 = 82%View full workings (N) →. However, the model does not provide the stores themselves. Renting means waiting for suitable sites at rents the store can carry. The plan needs little outside money, so the company can open stores and pay out most of its profit at the same time.

A grocer's earnings are what remains after suppliers and landlords take their share, and Quickmart's history tells how those two costs have moved. Over the past five years, the portion going to suppliers has changed little. The share of sales taken by the stores has fallen because, since 2022, their accounting cost has stayed nearly flat while sales increased. Most of the company's profit gains came from spreading these steady costs over higher sales, especially during years with few new store openings or new leases. The earnings rest on three terms: the rents Quickmart pays when existing leases come up for renewal, the terms it secures as it opens new stores, and the margin it earns on the goods it sells. The company's own forecast points to the margin on goods as the next driver of gains.

Notes and Sources

1. Quick Mart PLC. (2026, September 23). Intention to float announcement [the ITF]. https://ipo.quickmart.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/QUICKMART_INTENTION_TO_FLOAT.pdf. Every Quickmart figure in this article is from its pages 1 to 6; the page for each figure is given in the appendix entry the figure links to.
2. Capital Markets Authority. (2023). The Capital Markets (Public Offers, Listings and Disclosures) Regulations, 2023 (Legal Notice No. 172), regulation 18. https://www.cma.or.ke/download/34/regulations/5018/the-capital-markets-public-offers-listings-and-disclosures-regulations-2023.pdf
3. Damodaran, A. (2026, January 5). Margins by sector: Emerging markets [Dataset]. NYU Stern School of Business. https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/pc/datasets/marginemerg.xls
4. Shoprite Holdings. (2026). Reviewed results for the 52 weeks ended 28 June 2026, income statement at page 13 of the PDF (printed page 12). https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/docs/ye2026-sep2026.pdf
5. TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya PLC. (2026). Summary of audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025. https://www.nse.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/TotalEnergies-Marketing-Kenya-PLC-Audited-Financial-Results-for-the-Year-Ended-31-Dec-2025.pdf
6. Adenia Partners. ESGI report 2021 (https://www.adenia.com/media/t0qhq2u4/2-2021_esgi_public_report.pdf); ESGI report 2022 (https://www.adenia.com/media/tw1kps2r/adenia-partners-esgi-report-2022.pdf); ESG and impact report 2023 (https://www.adenia.com/esg-and-impact-report-2023/); ESG and impact report 2025 (https://www.adenia.com/adenia-esg-and-impact-report-2025/). Store counts at each year end, the 2022 capital expenditure, and the 2022 and 2023 emissions figures behind the euro conversion in appendix entry N.
7. Central Bank of Kenya. (2026). Inflation rates [Data table, retrieved 3 October 2026]. https://www.centralbank.go.ke/inflation-rates/

Computed figures are the author's own; the workings appear in the appendix, and each figure in the body that carries one links to its entry.

Appendix: The Workings

All Quickmart figures are in Ksh thousands as printed on ITF p.4 (FY2021 to FY2025) and p.5 (FY2026 and FY2027 projections) unless stated. Store counts are year-end counts from the Adenia reports. Items marked estimate rest on an assumption stated beside them. Bracketed keys resolve in the key table at the end of this appendix.

Terms as the body uses them. Gross margin is what is left of a sale after the goods sold are paid for, gross profit over revenue; the body also calls it the margin on the goods. Net margin is profit after tax over revenue. Depreciation is the yearly write-off of a thing bought to be used for years, here the fittings and equipment of the stores; depreciation of right-of-use assets is the same write-off applied to the leased premises, which the accounts treat as if bought for the term of the lease. The lease charge in the body is that write-off plus the interest on the leases, together the accounting cost of occupying the stores.

A. A Day's Takings and the Three Shillings

Revenue FY2025 50,427,637 over 64 stores at end-2025 [ADN25] over 365 days = 2,158, about Ksh 2.16m a store a day. Profit FY2025 1,508,574 over revenue 50,427,637 = 2.99%, the "Ksh 3 of every hundred" and the "net margin of 3%".

B. Most of the Rise Was Margin

Sales FY2021 to FY2025 25,680,587 to 50,427,637, times 1.96, the "sales doubled". Net margin 0.71% to 2.99%, times 4.21. Profit 182,637 to 1,508,574, times 8.26, the "more than eightfold". The margin's share of the rise, in logarithms, 1.44 of 2.11, 68%. The 2021 margin, 182,637 over 25,680,587 = 0.71%, is the "70 cents of every hundred".

C. Where the Wider Margin Came From

Estimate in part, for the reading of the finance charge stated at the end of this entry. Pre-tax margin 1.05% in 2021 (269,115 over 25,680,587) to 4.30% in 2025 (2,166,768 over 50,427,637), a gain of 3.25 points. Store costs, being depreciation of property and equipment, depreciation of right-of-use assets, amortisation and net finance charges, were 1,947,341 in 2021, 7.58% of sales, and 2,908,825 in 2025, 5.77%; the fall of 1.82 points is 56% of the gain, the "over half". Gross margin rose 0.92 points, 28%, the "more than a quarter". Staff, administration, other income and credit losses supplied the remaining 0.52 points, 16%. This article reads the net finance charge as lease interest, since bank borrowings were 6.8m at 30 June 2026 [ITF p.5]; the announcement does not split it. Shares are the same after tax at a constant rate.

D. The Gross Margin, Year by Year

Gross profit over revenue, 2021 21.05%, 2022 21.26%, 2023 20.96%, 2024 22.00%, 2025 21.97%. The 2023 figure rounds to 21.0%.

E. The Three Comparators

Damodaran, Margins by Sector, Emerging Markets, Retail (Grocery and Food), 97 firms, net margin 1.63%, updated 5 January 2026 [DAM-EM]; aggregate, meaning total profit over total revenue across the 97, so weighted to the largest. Shoprite: profit for the year R7,930m over revenue R274,750m, 52 weeks to 28 June 2026 [SHP p.13] = 2.89%. TotalEnergies: profit for the year 2,170,880 over net revenue from contracts with customers 104,019,367, year to 31 December 2025 [TOTL p.1] = 2.09%, the "Ksh 2.1 for every hundred"; net revenue is the line after indirect taxes and duties, and on gross revenue of 143,940,451 the figure would be 1.5%.

F. The Company's Forecast Margins

Projected profit 2,102,803 over revenue 58,204,588 = 3.61%; 2,848,316 over 67,435,723 = 4.22% [ITF p.5].

G. Openings and Sales Growth

Stores at year end, 45 at end-2021 [ADN21], 55 at end-2022, the report stating ten new stores in the year [ADN22], 59 at end-2023 [ADN23], 64 at end-2025 [ADN25]. No end-2024 count is held, so 2024 and 2025 are taken together as five openings. Sales growth: 34,781,302 over 25,680,587, 35.4%; 41,215,775 over 34,781,302, 18.5%; 46,707,717 over 41,215,775, 13.3%; 50,427,637 over 46,707,717, 8.0%. The first half of 2026: stores 64 at end-2025 [ADN25, an FY2025 report with no explicit date on the count] to 68 at 30 June 2026 [ITF p.2], four openings; half-year revenue 27,266,942 doubled is 54,533,884, over FY2025 revenue 50,427,637 = 1.081 [ITF p.4]. The ITF prints no first half of 2025, so this is an annualised rate against the prior full year, not a year-on-year growth figure, and it ignores any seasonality between halves.

H. Revenue per Store on Average Counts

Estimate in part. Full-year revenue is divided by the average of the opening and closing store counts, since stores opened during a year earn only part of it. 2022: 45 at end-2021 [ADN21] and 55 at end-2022 [ADN22], average 50; 34,781,302 over 50 = 695,626. 2025: no end-2024 count is held; 59 at end-2023 [ADN23] and 64 at end-2025 [ADN25], five openings across the two years, so end-2024 is taken as 62 and the 2025 average as 63; 50,427,637 over 63 = 800,439. Rise 1.151. On year-end counts alone the figures would be 632,387 and 787,932, a rise of 1.246, but the 2022 figure then carries ten stores open for part of the year and the rise is overstated. With end-2024 at 61 the 2025 average is 62.5 and the rise 1.160; with 63, 63.5 and 1.142.

I. After Inflation

Central Bank of Kenya annual average inflation at December, 2023 7.67%, 2024 4.50%, 2025 4.07% [CBK]; compounded, 1.0767 × 1.0450 × 1.0407 = 1.171, the "about 17%". The index is headline consumer prices; a food price index, which would fit a grocer's basket more closely, is not used here. Revenue per store after inflation, 1.151 over 1.171 = 0.983, within the range of entry H's assumption (0.975 to 0.991), the "about the same as before". Stores 55 to 64 at year end, times 1.16; on average counts 50 to 63, times 1.26; revenue per store after inflation about times 1.0; the real sales rise of 1.24 (1.450 over 1.171) is therefore the store count, the "growth came from opening new ones".

J. The Cost of Occupying the Stores

Estimate in part. Depreciation of right-of-use assets plus net finance charges, the finance charge read as lease interest as in entry C; 2022 745,535 + 1,239,048 = 1,984,583; 2025 897,467 + 1,284,016 = 2,181,483; up 9.9%, the "a tenth". Sales up 45.0%, the "nearly half". This entry excludes depreciation of property and equipment, which entry C includes; the body calls it the cost of occupying the stores rather than the cost of the stores for that reason. The charge is an accounting one, right-of-use depreciation plus lease interest; the interest on each lease is highest when it starts and falls as it is paid down, so with few new leases the total flattens whatever the cash rent does. The record shows the charge, not the rents. The ITF lists rental escalations and renewals among its risks [ITF p.3].

K. Four Shillings per Hundred, and the Return on It

Net assets 1.9bn at 30 June 2026 [ITF p.5] over FY2025 revenue 50,427,637 = 3.77%, the "about four shillings". The balance sheet date is six months after the revenue year; no 31 December 2025 net asset figure is on the record. Profit FY2025 1,508,574 over net assets 1.9bn = 79%, the "about four-fifths", against the company's 42.8% [ITF p.3]. The company's basis is not on the record; "must count capital the balance sheet does not show" is this article's inference from the gap, and the leases are named as the largest candidate because every store is leased [ITF p.2] and the lease liability is not among the four balance-sheet figures given [ITF p.5].

L. TotalEnergies' Capital and Sites

Total shareholders' equity 33,669,543 over net revenue 104,019,367 = 32.4%, the "about Ksh 32 for every hundred". Property, plant and equipment 13,450,101 over right-of-use assets 3,300,025 = 4.08, both at 31 December 2025 [TOTL p.1].

M. The Ksh 900 Million

Estimate. Projected FY2026 profit 2,102,803 less the projected dividend of 2,000,000 [ITF p.6], plus projected depreciation of property and equipment 773,572 and amortisation 35,554 [ITF p.5] = 911,929. Assumes the dividend is paid at the projected 95.1% rather than the 80% policy floor; treats depreciation of right-of-use assets as standing in for lease payments and so excludes it; ignores working-capital movement other than the supplier credit in entry N.

N. What a Ten-Store Year Costs and What Covers It

Estimate. The negative working capital of 4.0bn at 30 June 2026 [ITF p.5] is the suppliers' credit, stock sold before it is paid for, which is the body's "suppliers finance much of the stock". That 4.0bn over 68 stores at that date [ITF p.2, p.5] = 58.8m a store; ten stores, 588m; assumes a new store carries the average store's supplier credit from opening. Cost of a new store: capital expenditure of EUR 14.8m in 2022 over the ten stores opened that year [ADN22] = EUR 1.48m, converted at Ksh 124 per euro, the rate implied by the investor's own figures: Quickmart's 2022 emissions of 94,169 tCO2e at an intensity of 336 tCO2e per EUR million of revenue [ADN23] give EUR 280.3m of revenue, against FY2022 revenue of KES 34,781m, so 124.1 shillings per euro; EUR 1.48m × 124.1 = Ksh 184m a store; ten stores, 1,837m. The 2022 spend covers everything the company capitalised that year, refits and systems included, so 184m is an upper estimate of what a new store costs; spend on a store can fall in the year before or after it opens, so the timing of the ten openings against the year's spend can run either way. Coverage: 912m + 588m = 1,500m over 1,837m = 82%, the "most of a ten-store year"; at fifteen stores, 912m + 882m = 1,794m over 2,756m = 65%. Because the store cost is an upper estimate, the coverage figures are if anything understated.

Key	Document
ITF	Quick Mart PLC (2026), Intention to float announcement, 23 September 2026
POLD	Capital Markets Authority (2023), Public Offers, Listings and Disclosures Regulations
TOTL	TotalEnergies Marketing Kenya PLC (2026), summary of audited financial statements, year to 31 December 2025
SHP	Shoprite Holdings (2026), reviewed results, 52 weeks to 28 June 2026; income statement at p.13 of the PDF (printed page 12)
DAM-EM	Damodaran (2026), Margins by sector, emerging markets, updated 5 January 2026
ADN21, ADN22, ADN23, ADN25	Adenia Partners ESG and impact reports, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025
CBK	Central Bank of Kenya (2026), inflation rates table, retrieved 3 October 2026

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Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Investing in securities involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Readers should conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making investment decisions.