Diageo Africa Business Service Centre (ABSC) the major shareholder in East African Breweries Limited (EABL) plans to shut down its Nairobi based business support center and outsource the services. The move is expected to lead to the retrenchment of more than 100 employees.
The British multinational has outsourced all its financial, accounting, and analytical work to Bangalore, India and Budapest, Hungary.
In a statement, Diageo said, “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.”
ABSC unit runs back-office processes required for Diageo’s finance, supply, human resources and sales and marketing functions. The retrenchment will be done gradually and conclude on March 2020 with most layoffs concentrated in the human resources and finance desks.
The Nairobi centre is one of the five Diageo global shared services centres and the only one in Africa. “The review and change process will take place over a six-month period and conclude on March 2020,” management said.
Diageo, the parent company of EABL, stated that the changes would not affect core functions of its local subsidiary EABL.
EABL is one of several companies in Kenya that have down-sized their workforce. The restructuring is primarily driven by the tough economic environment and limited access to loans.
Moreover, business are keen to increase their earnings by cutting down on costs. Over the last year, there have been over 2000 jobs lost in firms such as Equity Group, Bamburi Cement, Standard Chartered, and Britam.
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