Business Times reports that SABMiller’s new owner, Anheuser-Busch InBev, is recruiting again after a higher than expected number of former SABMiller managers took voluntary separation packages and left in January. This was amid allegations that positions were made redundant, thereby forcing some people to leave.
But Richard Tadeu, Africa Zone president at AB InBev, said the company now needed to hire at least 100 new people as it planned new developments.
“We are going to invest in two new production lines in South Africa. That will be announced in [the] future. So we’ll need people to run those lines,” Tadeu told Business Times on Friday.
Of just more than 1,000 managers that SABMiller employed when AB InBev completed the $103-billion takeover in October last year, 378 departed through the severance package as part of the company’s global cost cutting plans.
The process only affected managers at headquarters, not operations, to minimise disruption, Tadeu said. It was the first time such a large scale restructuring had been done at SABMiller.
“At the end of the day we ended up with more people leaving that we ideally wanted. Now we’re in the process of rehiring some of the positions,” he said.
These posts are required in the legal, corporate affairs and finance departments and include administration roles such as analysts and are not limited to management positions, Tadeu indicated.
Up until early this month the roles were offered internally before being offered externally. “We’re in the process of matching people’s interest with positions available,” Tadeu said.
Last year, when it sought approval to buy SABMiller, AB InBev agreed to not retrench staff over the next five years, while workers at shop floor levels and those protected by the bargaining unit would also not be offered voluntary severance packages during this period. The company also agreed to maintain the workforce at around 5,600 positions over five years, but when this period expired AB InBev may not cut staff, Tadeu said.
South Africa will be home to a regional business centre, which will service some countries on the continent and others in other markets where AB InBev operates globally. AB InBev apparently regards Africa as a growth engine.
Meantime, in AB InBev’s 2016 annual report, which was published on Thursday, it was stated that the integration process was well underway.
Read the full report by Asha Speckman on page 1 of Sunday Times Business Times of 26 March 2017
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