The trained teacher-cum-banker exits Eveready just days after the loss-making company announced it had terminated its near half-century distribution agreement with parent firm Energizer International Inc.
“Ms Mudhune informed the board that her decision to resign was due to professional and personal commitments,” Eveready said in a regulatory filing.
She has served for nearly a decade having joined the Eveready board of directors in June 2007, after the company’s 2006 initial public offering at the NSE at a listing price of Sh9.50 per share.
Shareholders have endured a prolonged dividend drought, with Eveready having last paid a dividend of Sh0.45 in 2007.
Ms Mudhune, 66, currently sits on the boards of two Nairobi bourse-listed firms namely Safaricom and Pan Africa Insurance — which has now rebranded to Sanlam.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education and an MBA from the University of Nairobi. Ms Mudhune was the first female chair of a listed company in Kenya when she served as KCB Bank chairman for five years ending May 2008.
Eveready in the last week of December cut a long-standing pact with Energizer, saying the terms of the agreement restricted it from pricing products, personnel, and curtailed any diversification of its portfolio.
The Missouri-based Energizer Holdings, which sells the goods to the Kenyan firm, owns 22.06 million shares or a 10.51 per cent stake in Eveready East Africa.
The imports from Energizer including flashlights, batteries, Schick razors, and accessories accounted for 80 per cent of the Kenyan firm’s business, according to Eveready CEO Jackson Mutua.
Eveready in October 2014 announced that low sales due to illegal imports of cheap batteries and high energy costs had forced it to shut its Nakuru production factory in favour of importing batteries from Energizer.
It has now opted to import similar products and retail them under the Turbo brand, and has diversified into detergents and car batteries.
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