Posted on October, 25, 2019 at 08:35 am
By GERALD ANDAE - Business Daily
Bayer East Africa will lay off staff after its acquisition of Monsanto last year, the firm’s new boss has said.
Managing director Laurent Perrier last week said some employees will have to be sent home as their positions are declared redundant.
Mr Perrier, however, did not reveal the number of employees to be affected by the redundancy.
“Job cuts are expected when two firms come together. I will not say there will be no job cuts, this is not true,” said Mr Perrier in an interview last week.
“The idea is not to cut jobs for the sake of it, we cut when there is redundancy in positions,” he added.
The Germany-based conglomerate bought out Monsanto last year and retained the name Bayer for the two merged entities.
Bayer joins companies that have recently been cutting staff following hard times in the economy.
Layoffs plan
In August, four companies announced nearly 1,700 job cuts in just about three weeks, shinning a spotlight on the worsening unemployment crisis in the country.
The four firms—East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC), Telkom Kenya, Stanbic Bank of Kenya and East African Breweries Limited (EABL) — have already notified employees of the looming layoffs, citing the need to trim payrolls.
Finlays Flowers in a letter last week announced that its directors had decided to close operations at two of its flower farms in Chemirei and Tarakwet, a move that will see over 1,000 employees sent home by Christmas.
Bayer, which has three lines of business in three divisions (pharmaceuticals, consumer health and crop science) has operations in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, Latin America and Australia.
Seed brands
Monsanto Kenya was a leading supplier of hybrid seed brands in large-acre crops like maize, cotton, and oilseeds (soybeans and canola), as well as small-acre crops like vegetables.
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) approved the buyout of Monsanto Kenya by Bayer’s investment vehicle Bayer Aktiengesellscharl KWA Investment Company last year through a gazette notice.
Comesa Competition Commission (CCC) also approved the merger after finding out that it was not likely to lessen competition in the region.
Source: Business Daily