UK Company Which Ousted CEO Plans To Fire Kenyan Staff

Multinational brand and marketing company, WPP Scangroup Plc has announced its intention to restructure roles in some of its units and lay off close to 10 per cent of its workforce.

The company, which was well-known through business mogul Bharat Thakrar who founded SCANAD in 1982 and later set up WPP Scangroup Plc, is reported to have issued notices to some of its staff to reapply for roles, notifying them that some roles would cease to exist.

The notices were primarily sent to employees in the creative units, but reports indicate that staff in the account management and shared services departments also received them.

Explaining its move, the advertising firm attributed this to a response to marketing needs but macroeconomic trends may also rank high in its decision to restructure critical units in Kenya.

“Our creative business in Kenya that also offers digital services/solutions in the advertising and communication space is making some changes to its current skillset composition, bolstering certain areas, and streamlining others,” a WPP Scangroup spokesperson was quoted by The Kenyan Wall Street on Wednesday. 

“New roles will be created to strengthen our capabilities and build new skills in areas such as content, data, strategy, and tech; other existing roles will be modified to reflect global best practices; and lastly some roles will be reduced to enhance departmental efficiencies."

Speaking to Viral Tea on Thursday, a source privy to the matter revealed that the restructuring is likely to affect between 30-40 employees mostly in mid-level management positions. The firm has a workforce of 500 employees.

In November 2023, the firm issued a profit warning to investors. Among the reasons cited in the notice was the “continued subdued economic environment in our markets of operations that has led to cautious spending by our clients on advertising, marketing and communications.”

It also reported spending Ksh178 million on a one-time staff retrenchment.

This latest move comes as WPP is set to be embroiled in a legal battle after Thakrar threatened to file a Ksh4.3 billion lawsuit against the company's United Kingdom (UK)-based parent WPP.

Reports by a section of UK-based media in February this year indicated that Thakrar is accusing the parent firm of "neo-colonialist practices and discriminatory tactics" which he claims had led to his ejection from the company he founded.

Thakrar was suspended and ousted from the company in 2021 after allegations of financial misconduct but was later cleared after investigations failed to find incriminating evidence.

The reports had revealed that Thakrar alleged that WPP discriminated against him and Scangroup’s finance chief Satya Das through a clear target at business executives who were of Indian extraction, an action that went against Kenyan laws that prohibit any kind of segregation.

His lawyers further accused the UK parent advertising agency of leaking details of an internal investigation into alleged financial and personal misconduct to Kenyan media, thus inflicting reputational damage upon him.

The lawyers also claimed that WPP had protected a British national high-ranking Scangroup executive who was also involved in the charges levelled against Thakrar when he was ousted. The Briton was instead promoted to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in one of WPP's largest firms.

Thakrar's legal team is preparing for a legal showdown and is anticipated to file proceedings seeking substantial damages, estimated at around £24 million (Ksh4.3 billion).

WPP denied any wrongdoing in response to the allegations.