Job Losses Loom as Deacons Plans To Shut Down Undisclosed Number of Stores

Tough times for Kenyans lie ahead in terms of unemployment as more business close down some of their branches to cut on their costs.

The latest company to announce that it will close down an undisclosed number of stores is Deacons East Africa. The NSE-listed company has said that some of the unprofitable stores will be shut down by the end of June this year in what will lead to loss of an unknown number of jobs.

Plans to close down more stores comes just two weeks after the same retailer shut down one of its stores in Sarit Center in Nairobi in what the company attributed to gloomy sales leading to the restricting of the business.

Deacons has more than 40 stores spread across the East African region including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Mauritius and the firm has not indicated which stores are going to be affected. Deacons have been going through some financial turmoil with an operating loss of 385 million shillings for the 2016 Financial Year from an operating profit of 141.6 million shillings in the 2015 Financial Year.