Tension as senior managers lose jobs at Nile Breweries

Kampala.

Beer maker, Nile Breweries Limited (NBL), is the latest in a string of companies that have laid off their employees as they find the way in hard and biting economy.

Sources at the beer company say senior managers including managing director Greig Metcalf, marketing director Daniel Ogong, human resources director Paul Bitarabeho and Julius Biingi, the district manager in charge of the west, as well as junior officers have been sacked.

Normal departures
However, the corporate affairs director at NBL, Mr Onapito Ekomoloit, dismissed the sacking claims saying: “There are no resignations in a negative sense but rather normal departures and isolated cases of misconduct.”

“People make career moves. This company has never had resignations out of protest but people leave from time to time for career moves or for better opportunities,” he said.
Mr Ekomoloit said Mr Metcalf did not resign his job but he will leave the company at the end of May this year to pursue a more exciting career opportunity elsewhere.

“He (Metcalf) has to change career but he is still with us to prove that he has not resigned. He is going outside Africa after contributing enormously to the growth of the beer revenue, profitability and market share,” Mr Ekomoloit said yesterday in an interview at his office in Luzira near Kampala.

He said Mr Biingi retired happily from the company employment after serving for 15 years and that the company held a farewell party for him last weekend.

Mr Ekomoloit added that Mr Biingi moves on to become a company distributor for Hoima Area where he will take part in a much more challenging role although as a private entity. “The two people: Mr Ogong and Mr Bitarabeho, after serving for a long time, decided to leave to pursue better career in private ventures. There is nothing unusual,” he added.

Mr Ekomoloit said: “There are other staff movements but these are routine. We also had isolated cases of medical fraud where people were disciplined. But they are not current and it is not the reason for the current departure.”

An employee who declined to be mentioned because he is not allowed to speak to the press on behalf of NBL revealed that indeed senior managers and several other members of staff in the sales department were sacked. “They were sacked. They did not retire or resign.”

The staff who described his designation as ‘contract’ also said that the managing director will move out of the country for other duties.

Staff movements come hardly six months since October 2016 when NBL ownership changed at global level from SABMiller to Belgium-based company ABInBev.

Mr Ekomoloit said the change of ownership of the NBL did not affect operations since it remains a Ugandan company.

“Anybody who has left since October 2016 without a misconduct issue is a happy person. When new owners took over, they promised to provide pay and employment protection and went on to provide that anybody who leaves for non-misconduct reason will get double the normal severance package,” he said.