Johannesburg - Swiss food and drinks company Nestlé SA is cutting 15% of its workforce in 21 African countries because it says it overestimated the rise of the middle class, the Financial Times reported.
"We thought this would be the next Asia, but we have realised the middle class here in the region is extremely small and it is not really growing,” Cornel Krummenacher, chief executive for Nestlé’s equatorial Africa region, told the Financial Times in an interview.
He also said Nestlé would be lucky to reach annual 10% growth in Africa in future years, and with the cuts, the company hoped to break even next year.
Nestlé Nigeria reported a 51% fall in pretax profit to 3.48 billion naira in the first quarter.
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