Mr Thiagarajan Ramamurthy has left Nakumatt Holdings. He was often the public face of the retailer, representing the company in multiple media and conference appearances. PHOTO | FILE | NMG
Mr Ramamurthy was often the public face of the retailer, representing the company in multiple media and conference appearances.
He was also an evangelist for the new face of Kenyan retailing when Nakumatt was on a rapid expansion drive.
Long serving Nakumatt Holdings boss Thiagarajan Ramamurthy has left the retailer after over a decade in a reorganisation meant to enhance performance of the company that is facing pressure from a mountain of debt.
The retailer, the country’s largest, also announced the appointment of Mr Manoj Singh as the new finance controller - He joins Nakumatt from a leading West African Retail Business firm -- Melcom Group.
Recently the retailer appointed Andrew Dixon as its chief marketing officer.
Nakumatt’s management says the changes are necessary to cut costs and boost business operations.
“The departure of Mr Ramamurthy comes at a defining moment in the history of Nakumatt and we sincerely wish to extend our gratitude for his service to this organisation,” said Nakumatt’s MD Atul Shah.
Mr Ramamurthy was the public face of the retailer, representing the company in multiple media and conference appearances.
He was also an evangelist for the new face of Kenyan retailing at a time when Nakumatt was on a rapid expansion drive.
Nakumatt’s gross debt more than tripled to Sh15 billion in February 2015 from Sh4.2 billion in 2011, piling pressure on operations and resulting in long payment delays to suppliers. This has led to stock outs at many of its outlets.
The latest executive shakeup, which comes ahead of a deal to offload a 25 per cent stake to a deep-pocketed investor, also saw Mr Srihari Vemula become the new chief operations manager while Mr Bernard Mutua and Sameer Shah were retained as joint country managers in Uganda.
Mr Daniel Kimweli and Mr Srinivasan Suresh retain their positions in Tanzania while Mr Adan Ramata will continue to head the subsidiary in Rwanda.
Nakumatt added that further restructuring will take place across their 64 stores in coming months.
“Further enhancements on the firm’s C-suite and regional operations management teams to boost efficiency and accelerate cost cutting efforts,” the retailer said in a statement.
The retailer will also adopt a new group and regional management structure with Nairobi continuing to serve as the regional headquarters complemented by in-country management teams in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Editor's note: This is a revised version of an earlier story. An earlier version did not indicate that Thiagarajan Ramamurthy was the regional operations and strategy director.
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