Diageo, EABL parent company, to retrench staff in Kenya

EABL plant at Ruaraka in Kenya's capital Nairobi. The firm's parent company Diageo plans to retrench more than 100 employees in Kenya. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• The Diageo Africa Business Service Centre (ABSC), the only shared service centre in Africa and one of five globally, will be shutting down and its role outsourced to other markets.
• The retrenchments will be done gradually and conclude in March next year.
• More than 2,000 high-quality jobs have been lost in retrenchments in corporate Kenya.

By VICTOR JUMA
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London-based brewer Diageo, the parent company of East African Breweries (EABL), is set to retrench more than 100 employees working at its business support centre in Nairobi, marking one of the latest large-scale layoffs in corporate Kenya.

The Diageo Africa Business Service Centre (ABSC), the only shared service centre in Africa and one of five globally, will be shutting down and its role outsourced to other markets.

The unit runs back-office processes required for Diageo’s finance, supply, human resources and sales and marketing functions. “The business services requirements and processes across Diageo Africa are changing and as such Diageo will be conducting a review of the centre to determine where best to locate technical services roles for Africa in either Europe or Asia,” the multinational said in a statement.

Sources familiar with the matter told Business Daily that more than 100 employees will lose their jobs, with most of the layoffs concentrated in the human resource and finance desks.

The retrenchments will be done gradually and conclude in March next year. Diageo said the changes will not affect the core functions of its local subsidiary EABL.

Diageo becomes the latest to announce major job cuts in corporate Kenya in the past one year.

More than 2,000 high-quality jobs have been lost in retrenchments implemented by companies including Bamburi Cement, Standard Chartered Bank (Kenya) and Britam. Stanbic Bank also recently drew a plan to lay off up to 200 employees.