The High Court has ordered the liquidation of Tusker Mattresses, popularly referred to as Tuskys Supermarket.
Tuskys Supermarket, once East Africa’s biggest family-owned retail chain, dominated the whole country. For instance, in 2019, it had 64 branches.
Today, it is a shell of itself, with Tuskys Imara branch along Tom Mboya being the only remaining retailer’s outlet in the Central Business District with assets worth 6 billion shillings.
However, Justice David Majanja, Judge of the High Court ruled that there was no hope of resurrecting the retailer which owes creditors more than 20 billion shillings.
The liquidation petition was filed by Hotpoint Appliances Limited and supported by more than 12 creditors.
In the petition, Hotpoint Appliances wanted the court to declare the cash-strapped supermarket chain insolvent.
Consequently, they seek to have the retailer liquidated to recover over 100 million shillings owed for the supply of electronics.
Justice Majanja said the insolvency petition has been on for more than three years since 2020 and that there was no hope of reviving Tuskys.
The Judge said Tuskys has not objected to owing 19.7 billion shillings to its suppliers, saying that the only prudent thing to do is to appoint a liquidator who will try and “salvage something for the creditors, many of whom had lost hope of ever getting something.”
As a result, Kolluri Venkata Subbaraya Kamsastry has been appointed as the liquidator to sell the remaining assets and use the proceeds to settle debts.
Tuskys Supermarket Painful Ksh 2.8 Bn Debt Owed to DTB and Equity
