Agri-tech firm Twiga Foods has defended its decision to downsize its workforce. The company says it’s a change in the business model and it is transitioning the sales workforce to agents.
In October, Twiga stopped working with expatriates who were providing various departments across multiple platforms, and reduced staff per diems from a high of Kes4000 to Kes1000 where accommodation was offered on a bed and breakfast in a single room basis.
The company also wrote to employees about their termination which they have since said was part of the law requirements for them to transition into agents.
Twiga Foods CEO and Co-Founder Peter Njonjo says,” this was more of a change of business model and for the change to happen, we had to create redundancies of 211 salespeople as the law requires. “
With the new model, Twiga wants to allow the establishment of independent agents who will own certain parts of their market share and interact one on one with consumers. The agents will also generate revenue from their sales to move away from the fixed salaries they were receiving.
So far, the company has onboarded close to 400 people with 300 having expressed interest to become agents, a move they feel will create more opportunities and more money for the agents.
Twiga targets to increase the number of sales agents to 1000 by next year. The transition allows for higher earnings based on the effort and enterprise