Sameer Africa PLC ( SAMR.NR) after warning its investors severely on declining profits, the firm has said it will close some of its operations with a significant number of its staff being affected.
In a public cautionary notice on Saturday, the firm said: “This has been necessitated by the need to protect the shareholders’ interests, minimize costs and ensure that the business performance turnaround.”
The tyre maker company was first incorporated in Kenya in 1969 as Firestone East Africa Limited, the company secretary Edgar Imbamba added that, “The exercise is intended to ring-fence the key profit units and shift focus away from the loss-making business units, grow the revenue base and capitalize rental segment of the business.”
The company’s principal business is the importation and sale of tyres and allied products and the letting of investment property.
They operate primarily in Kenya, with tyre operations in Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi.
Sameer Africa PLC is 72.15% owned by Sameer Investments Limited, a leading economic force in East Africa with over thirty years’ experience in Kenya’s industrial and economic development and a provider of direct and indirect employment for over 30,000 people.
However, “Regrettably, the restructuring exercise is likely to involve the laying off of a number of employees,” said the statement.
In January, it announced beginning February to end of April it said it would commence laying off 52 employees. “It is therefore contemplated that approximately 52 employees drawn from both management and unionisable cadres will have their employment contracts terminated,” said acting managing director Peter Gitongain a notice to Nairobi County labour office.
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