Ex-Deacons chief of finance joins Eveready board

What you need to know:

Joseph Sitati, the immediate former finance chief of fashion retailer Deacons East Africa (under administration), has 22 years’ experience in finance and strategy largely working for multinationals.

Struggling battery distributor Eveready East Africa #ticker:EVRD has named Joseph Sitati as an independent director on its board, replacing Uchumi Supermarkets chairperson Catherine Ngahu who resigned last September.

Mr Sitati, the immediate former finance chief of fashion retailer Deacons East Africa (under administration), has 22 years’ experience in finance and strategy largely working for multinationals.

“Mr Joseph W Sitati, 45, is a finance and audit professional with a wealth of experience in finance, retail, management, operations, information technology and logistics,” the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

He joins the firm at a time when the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed battery distributor is battling to reverse losses which amounted to nearly Sh64.56 million in six months ended March 2018.

The firm has said full-year net earnings for the period ended September 2018 will fall at least 25 per cent compared with Sh267.17 million a year earlier on account of a one-off Sh452.46 million gain from sale of its land in Nakuru.

Eveready, founded in 1967, has struggled to recover from closure of its dry cell plant in Nakuru in September 2014 largely because of debilitating influx of cheap imports.

That has been compounded by loss of exclusive distribution contract for Energizer batteries in East and Central Africa in March 2017 following a protracted legal battle.

Presently, the firm largely relies on importation and distribution of various household goods, including Turbo brand of batteries, for operations.

Mr Sitati, who has since December 2015 been serving on KenGen Board, is expected to bring on board his experience in retail services sector over the years.

He previously worked for giant beverage maker Coca-Cola as commercial finance manager for East and West Africa (August 2008 to May 2013) and finance manager for Shell and BP Kenya (currently Vivo Energy under Shell brand) between July 2004 and June 2006. He also served as finance planning manager for pharmaceutical GlaxoSmithKline between 2002 and 2004.