AHL to lay off 40 percent of its employees

AHL Group will lay off 40 percent of the company’s workers due to financial challenges which the company is facing.

Acting CEO Alfred Nkhono revealed this when he toured the company’s auction floors.

“The company is in the process of restructuring and this will affect some employees and the company will lay off a minimum of 40% of employees, this will happen within now and end of March 2020,” he said.

Nkhono also apologized to employees over the challenges they went through when the company was failing to pay them

“We know we are passing through a lot of challenges. When I took over from Dr Evance Matabwa you were already owed two-month salary arrears, let me apologize for this suffering. I want to ensure you that we are going to do anything possible so that this should not be happen again. We are very grateful to Government through Admarc that they bailed out the company with K6 billion and we assure everyone that you will to be receiving monthly salaries onwards,” he said.

He added that some of AHL’s subsidiaries such as Auction Holdings Commodity Exchange (AHCX) and IC Tech Africa will be closed while Agriculture Trading Company (ATC) and Steel and Chemicals will be merged and this will mean some employees under these companies will be fired.

He, however, said the company is prepared for the 2021 tobacco marketing season.

“Although we are in this situation but we are set to have a better and successful 2021 tobacco season, there is nothing to worry and let Farmers trust us,” he said.

Government through Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation which owns 40 percent shares in AHL gave AHL K6 billion in January.

The money helped solve financial issues at the company including salaries for employees who were not paid from September to December.