‘CNN Marketplace Africa’ focuses on Africa’s biggest global brands

CNN Marketplace Africa is airing a series of episodes featuring four of the biggest global brands in Africa.

Each week, the programme will focus on operations of a brand on the ground, to show how it deals with infrastructural and logistical challenges that exist on the continent, and how it positions its brand to appeal to African consumers.

Marketplace Africa will also have FaceTime interviews with CEOs from each company to discuss how their strategy for Africa ties into the overall global strategy.

Kick-starting the month is the food chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

To discover what lies behind KFC’s success, Samuel Burke interviews Roger Eaton, CEO of KFC, for the FaceTime element of the programme, and Eleni Giokos reports from Nigeria to see how the brand is building a presence beyond South Africa.


Continued expansion of KFC across Africa is the proposed aim and business plan, as Eaton tells Marketplace Africa: “We’re slowly moving north. So we’ve been quite strong in the surrounding countries, so when you look at our performance in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, all of the close-in countries, we’ve had experience. As we go a little further, Angola, we’ve been able to go back into Zimbabwe, that’s helping, but now you see us push back in Ghana and Nigeria, and much further North, Uganda.”

Watch CNN Marketplace Africa on Friday, 8 January at 18h15 on CNN International.

The show also airs at the following times:

• Saturday, 9 January at 18h15
• Sunday, 10 January at 03h00 and 9h15
• Monday, 11 January at 04h00 and 19h45