Companies

Eveready East Africa closes struggling Nakuru factory

Battery distributor Eveready East Africa has closed its Nakuru dry cell manufacturing factory, opting to source batteries from its affiliate in Egypt.

The move will see the company retrench 99 employees later this week. Eveready says an influx of cheaper and illegal imports has hurt operations at the Nakuru plant, making it economically unviable.

The factory has been running at 25 per cent of its capacity.

“We are shifting our focus from manufacturing to distribution, which is now our core business,” said Jackson Mutua, Eveready’s managing director.

He added that the move to import all batteries from Energizer Egypt will eliminate costs of running the Nakuru plant besides boosting the firm’s competitiveness in terms of pricing.