Innscor steps up employee empowerment

INNSCOR Africa (Innscor) group is continuing to upscale its worker empowerment schemes, as National Foods (Natfoods) has paid a US$190 000 dividend to its employee share trust (EST).

The development comes as the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX)-listed group has recently shelled out a US$460 000 cheque and bonus to its workers.

“The NatFoods Workers Trust (NWT) essentially links the ambitions of the company to (its) staff because… when it performs, (they also) receive greater benefits..,” group human resources executive Alice Pawarikanda said, adding “this makes the scheme very attractive, as it seeks to match employee goals with those of the company”.

“…the amount is being paid to qualifying and non-managerial workers,” she said in a statement this week.

Jointly owned by Innscor and South African-based Tiger Brands – at 37,45 percent stake each – NatFoods is Zimbabwe’s largest food manufacturer and processor, and having been established in 1920”.

Addington Chinake, the group’s chairman

While group chairman Addington Chinake has recently said the ESTs were part of the “company’s compliance measures with the indigenisation programmes”, the total amount of money paid under the empowerment initiatives has risen to nearly US$576 707 in the current financial year.

Meanwhile, the NWT was not only established in 1985 “as a donation, but it owns nearly 10 percent of the company” and benefits 1 200–plus employees through cash pay-outs and other schemes such as scholarship for their children’s school fees.

On the other hand, Innscor is a group focused on light manufacturing, fastfoods and other strategically-placed or integrated operations, including NatFoods, which produce a number of iconic brands in the consumer staple product space.

As it is, the company produces a broad range of basic foods, including maize meal, flour, snacks and animal feed.

Despite operating under difficult conditions such as rising inflation and attendant pressures, currency instability and constrained foreign currency liquidity -,as stated in a March 31 trading update – Innscor has continued to experience volumes growth.

“…a marked loss of business sentiment was impacted further by uncertainty across the international financial… landscape,” it said.

“While consumer demand remained relatively buoyant across the informal trade, the formal market continued to face a crowding-out effect arising from policy-induced pricing distortions and resultant arbitrage evident across the formal trade,” the VFEX-listed group said.

“These effects were further aggravated by a hostile, uncertain, and ambiguous taxation system severely impacting formal business,” Innscor said.