Portland Cement renews hunt for chief operating officer

Cement maker EAPCC has renewed efforts to recruit a chief operating officer (COO) after candidates who applied to fill the new position last August fell short of required qualifications.

The NSE-listed East African Portland Cement Company has re-advertised the position, which is expected to strengthen its governance structure.
The Athi River-based manufacturer first sought to recruit a COO and chief finance officer (CFO) last year through consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

Kephar Tande, the company’s managing director, says the board deemed the applicants to be unqualified.

“The first attempt last year did not yield a suitable candidate from the shortlisted four hence this new advertisement,” Mr Tande told the Business Daily in an e-mail interview.

“This position is primarily required to improve the efficiency of our supply chain to make the company more competitive. We expect the position to be filled by August.”

EAPCC’s current management executive structure is made up of heads of sections and divisions like financial management, research and development, internal audit and risk management as well as strategy performance improvement.

The cement maker says the new COO will be responsible for cement production operations, production engineering, product research and development as well as sales and marketing.

“To achieve its objectives of growth, expansion and sustained profitability, EAPCC is looking for a performance-driven and innovative leader to fill the position of COO to lead its key organisation function of operations,” states a notice advertising the job. Individuals interested in the job are expected to apply by July 8.

EAPPC remained non-committal on when it would re-advertise the CFO’s job, also a new position that would see it follow in footsteps of listed peers Bamburi and ARM Cement who have finance directors who also sit on the board.

The CFO is expected to streamline financial management at the company which has recently faced accusations of having reported inaccurate accounts.

“The position of CFO will be filled as soon as internal procedures are completed,” said Mr Tande.

The company announced an after-tax loss of Sh67.8 million for its half year compared to Sh183.4 million profit recorded in a similar period the previous year, representing a 63 per cent drop.

Portland, which has an installed annual capacity of 1.3 million tonnes, attributed the dip in profitability to a decline in sales accompanied by a rise in production costs.