File | Nation Media Group
What you need to know:
Unilever Tea Kenya Limited will retain its
presence in Kenya as its parent firm mulls a change of operations on
global subsidiaries with the exception of India and Indonesia.
The tea firm’s British-Dutch parent company
Unilever announced in a half-year report released in July that only
India and Indonesia businesses will continue operating as they are,
while others internationally undergo a strategic review.
The parent firm will shift some of its operations around to a subsidiary while some of its business could be sold.
Unilever Tea Kenya Limited Managing Director
Sylvia-Ten Den says Kenya operations are only undergoing a strategic
review to establish the best business model and that an exit from the
country is not on the cards.
While Ms Den did not give a specific date when
the review would end, she indicated that the process will continue
until the end of 2021 when a decision will be made on UTKL’s next step.
Best business model
The review is aimed at figuring out the best business model to reap profits from UTKL’s tea business.
The firm has also denied claims by worker
lobby group Kenya Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union (KPAWU) that
it has over 60,000 workers.
Ms Den did not give the exact number of
workers UTKL has, but the firm’s website says it has 5,500 permanent
workers and “thousands of temporary workers during the peak season”
The UTKL boss holds that the strategic
business review will not affect current operations and that there is no
plan to lay off workers.
“We are not scaling down our operations, the
full outcome of the ongoing strategic review will only be clear by the
end of 2021. This has been made clear in our official communication on
the same,” Ms Den said in an interview.
UTKL says the only voluntary retirement scheme
it had expired in February 2019 and that it partnered with the Ministry
of Agriculture’s Kericho office and several non-governmental
organisations to help affected workers secure alternative jobs.
Achepkoech@ke.nationmedia.com, bwasuna@ke.nationmedia.com
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