By KENNEDY MUPESENI – POUND Stretcher, a multi-national household chain store, has set up a K2 million store at Twin Palm Mall in Lusaka, raising the number of its outlets in the country to three. Managing director Zunaid Aziz said the company had spent K2 million on putting up the outlet at Twin Palm due to the growing demand of its products. Mr Aziz was speaking at the official opening of the store at Twin Palm Mall in Lusaka on Monday afternoon. “Since we registered our presence in Zambia three years ago, the number of outlets has increased from one to three largely due to the good business regulatory environment in the country,” he said. Mr Aziz said the company provided unique products which were enabling it to be in business amid competition. Pound Stretcher has a mega store on Kafue Road in Lusaka, a smaller one in Kitwe on the Copperbelt, and now the Twin Palm store. It also has outlets in Zimbabwe and Malawi. Mr Aziz said the economic situation prevailing in the three countries had seen profitability drop by 40 per cent mainly because of the instability of local currencies, as well as the reduced purchasing power of clients. “The last two years have been good for our business, and that is why we managed to grow our outlets to three. “But this year has been tough for our business as you know the local currencies not only in Zambia but other countries that we operate in have been facing instabilities,” Mr Aziz said. He was, however, optimistic that this would soon turn around for good in 2016.