Business Daily Africa has revealed that Kenyan based construction company which specializes in the manufacturing and selling of cement and cement related products; East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) has sacked all of its top managers in a restructuring plan that will see the company also sell 2,000 acres of its prime land in Mavoko, Machakos, in order to boost its finances.
The company last week issued dismissal notices to 136 managers and supervisors.
It however made it known that plans are underway to rehire some of the managers and supervisors. The rehiring will however be on the condition of them getting 60 percent less than their previous pay.
In a move to further cut its workforce of 800 employees by a quarter, The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) will also dismiss its junior staff but only after it sells two parcels of land which come to a total of 2,000 acres.
The East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) plans to declare its entire 800 employees redundant before asking said employees to reapply under new terms, all in an effort to trim its salary costs.
In the 6 months leading to December, East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) recorded a net loss of 1.26 billion Kenyan Shillings, a rather high increment when compared to the 966 million Kenyan Shillings loss in a similar period the year before.
East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) sales figures were almost cut in half from 9 billion Kenyan Shillings in the year which ended in June 2014 to 5 billion Kenyan Shillings in 2018. This was as a result of the company’s rivals digging into its market share, which was 30 percent a decade ago, but now stands which currently stands at 11 percent.
Employee costs for East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) stood at 4 billion Kenyan Shillings in 2018, meaning that its staff expenses took up 80 percent of its sales.
As at the 30th of June 2018, the current liabilities for East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) which manufactures Blue Triangle which is a brand of cement, exceeded its current assets by 6 billion Kenyan Shillings.
While the company is seeking shareholder approval this Friday the 27th of September 2019, to sell 2,000 acres of its Mavoko land in order to save the firm from being auctioned by the KCB Group over a 5.4 billion Kenyan Shillings loan, it has however not released figures for the current fiscal year.
East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) expects that the sale of its Mavoko land, will generate the money needed to clear its 5.4 billion Kenyan Shillings loan and still have more left.
The income from the land sale, will also be channellled towards operations, including meeting its redundancy costs and also upgrading its ageing plant.
The company will also be giving 4,256 acres of its land to the Kenyan government for free because it has failed to put the property under agricultural use in line with the allocation terms inked in 1960.
East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) is also looking to refurbish its dilapidated plant and put up a fully integrated cement milling line as well, all at a cost of 28 billion Kenyan Shillings.
The new production line will however be built in phases.
