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East African Portland Cement throws in the towel and sends all workers packing after incurring $80,000 losses daily

East African Portland Cement throws in the towel and sends all workers packing after incurring $80,000 daily.
  • According to CEO Stephen Nthei, the loss-making firm which is listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, has been making losses of up to Sh8 million ($80,000) daily which has made doing business extremely difficult.
  • The cash strapped company reported a 30 percent increase in loss to Sh1.26 billion ($12.6 million) for the half year ended December 2018.
  • The latest layoff comes just three years after the company fired hundreds of employees for the same reason.

After years of making losses running into millions of shillings cement manufacturer East African Portland Cement (EAPCC) has had enough and decided to throw in the towel by sending all workers packing.

According to CEO Stephen Nthei, the loss-making firm which is listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, has been making losses of up to Sh8 million ($80,000) daily which has made doing business extremely difficult.

So, in a bid to turn the firm’s fortunes the cement manufacturer is now going to lay off all its employees in a restructuring plan expected to save the company from further losses.

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Capital Business reported seeing a Memo which detailed that all positions in the company have been declared redundant and will affect both unionisable and non-unionisable workers in the company.

Subsequently, all jobs will be reconfigured in terms of job consolidation and enrichment, in line with the restructuring.

The latest layoff comes just three years after EAPCC, once a giant in the industry fired hundreds of employees for the same reason.

In 2016, the company fired 1,000 employees and reduced its staff count to 500 people.

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EAPCC’s chairman Bill Lay at the time said the company was overstaffed with employee numbers being over 1,500.

“By benchmarking with the rest of the industry we need only 500,” said Lay.

Last year, the company laid off 520 employees with the company saying it opted for non-renewal of contracts due to a bloated workforce whose wage bill was unsustainable.

In November 2018, the firm’s then Managing Director and Chairman Simon Ole Nkeri said it required Sh15 billion ($150, million) to affect a turnaround in its fortunes.

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The cash strapped company reported a 30 percent increase in loss to Sh1.26 billion ($12.6 million) for the half year ended December 2018 up from the Sh949.2 million ($9.492 million) loss it posted six months before.

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