Nestle SA said a reorganization of its operations in Zambia to help ensure the Swiss food and beverage company’s continued presence in the country may lead to job cuts.
“We are not able to confirm how the new structure will look and how many employees will be impacted,” a Nestle spokesman said in an emailed response to questions on Thursday.
The company intends to remain active in the eastern and southern Africa market, Nestle said.
Last year, Nestle closed its so-called Equatorial Africa headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, saying the costs of maintaining that unit had been too high.
Here these are merely distributors,they are NOT like Parmalat who buy milk from farmers and ADD VALUE,THAT IS WHERE REAL JOBS ARE CREATED.I do recall when they were launching their operations i
Zambia the then PS,Dr.Buleti Nsemukila challenged them (Nestle) to consider opening some value addition factory considering Zambia’s geographical position and membership of both COMESA and SADC.They never did,so now they know they don’t need big structures for mere distribution when their products can and are traded and thus distributed by S.African major supermarkets!! THAT IS WHY WE NEED WISER LEADERSHIP TO ATTRACT MANUFACTURERS TO CREATE REAL JOBS THAT WILL MAKE US HAVE SOMETHING TO TRADE WITH OTHERS BEYOND COPPER!!
Zambiaisours – you forget that Nestle manufactures baby foods, chocolate products that have diary products in them which in turn support the bottling and packaging sectors. Although most of its products are cocoa based from West Africa ..the fact of the matter is manufacturing in Zambia is too costly on top of that electricity is not reliable, how can a butcher survive with 4 hours without electricity every day. How can an SME grow in such an environment and most products in Zambia are SA products …there is no point them investing in Zambia when they can simply expand in SA. This is where you need visionary leadership …not komboni drunkards happy to fly abut signing trade treaties that are only benefiting SA.
We are currently raising children like chickens. Breast milk is best. Our children will be healthier without formula.
Food processing is traditional first stage of industrialization. It’s not even high-tech. But if we cannot do even low-tech things, what industrialization are we capable of then? Mukumbuta of CEEC, what will your industrial yards produce? Where are Zambia’s science and engineering graduates working in research labs in Zambia? Anyway, it’s a bit more complicated. Prevailing environment is not supportive of new ventures.
I totally agree with you @ Zambian is ours. Nestle is talking sensilessly. They should direct that statement to South Africa and not Zambia. Racists!
Africa needs to control her Cocoa production and start making local chocolates and associated foods.
Goodbye.
What jobs are they cutting, sales jobs?
Sounds like a bunch of trib.als to me. So what do they do in Zambia? Are they even worth a mention on LT?
Is Trib.al Hacks a shareholder perhaps?