Twiga confirms it laid off its gross sales workforce in 2022 because it adjusts its business mannequin

Twiga shifted its gross sales mannequin after restructuring operations that eradicated inner gross sales groups. It has the suitable to terminate working relationships with underperforming impartial contractors.

Twiga Foods, a business-to-business (B2B) platform that connects farmers and meals distributors, has confirmed that it now not has an in-house gross sales workforce after a cost-cutting transfer it carried out final yr. The cost-cutting move was a round of layoffs in October 2022 that affected 211 people, and the corporate’s CEO Peter Njonjo has clarified that opposite to some claims, there have been no new in-house workforce cuts. Nonetheless, he shared that Twiga has modified its gross sales mannequin and now works with a number of impartial brokers as an alternative of full-time salespeople.

In an electronic mail to TechCabal, Njonjo stated, “We made the modifications to our business workforce final yr in October. We needed to transform the function of a salesman from that of an worker to a free agent. We made redundant the function of a Commerce Improvement Consultant and thus impacted 211 folks. We paid all dues as per the Kenyan Employment Act. Different huge corporations adopted swimsuit in Kenya.” 

The layoffs imply that Twiga now not has a gross sales division staffed with full-timers. Njonjo defended the firings as changing the salespeople to ‘free brokers.’ “We now not have devoted gross sales brokers in Twiga,” stated Njonjo.

Twiga’s new agent mannequin

In keeping with Njonjo, Twiga stopped working with a number of gross sales brokers following a efficiency analysis. “Beneath the brand new agent mannequin we rolled out final yr, we’re all the time reviewing sub-optimal gross sales territories, and it has been fairly an iterative course of. The choice to merge gross sales clusters drove the discount within the variety of brokers, primarily pushed by the viability of these clusters (pushed by efficiency over time). The brokers are impartial actors, the place most often they don’t work completely for the corporate, so this was based mostly on the viability of these clusters,” added the CEO. Njonjo’s Twiga didn’t disclose the precise variety of affected gross sales brokers.

One of many impartial brokers informed TechCabal that Twiga assigns areas they need to cowl. The supply additionally confirmed that Twiga doesn’t prohibit brokers by way of corporations they work with. Nonetheless, they’ve to satisfy set objectives to proceed contracting for the corporate. 

Twiga assesses the brokers month-to-month. If they don’t serve their shoppers satisfactorily, they’re changed by a ready record of recent candidates. Njonjo says a ready record of 2000 folks is able to be onboarded as gross sales brokers. That is possible why Twiga is stringent in dealing with brokers as a result of if they can’t carry out, a brand new set of brokers would change them.

This enterprise mannequin has maybe led to a web-based dialogue faulting Twiga for firings. Whereas that could be the case, Twiga has not laid off any everlasting staff. Adopting the mannequin makes it clear that underperforming impartial brokers will proceed to be laid off.

Final week, Twiga transferred its rights at the Galana-Kulalu Scheme to Selu Limited. Selu Restricted has been arrange as a specialised entity to put money into the irrigation challenge. The purpose is to develop 20,000 acres of land for maize manufacturing, utilising progressive and sustainable farming strategies.

In the direction of the tip of 2021, Twiga Meals secured $50 million in new funding to help its East and West Africa growth efforts. The funding was raised by its present buyers, together with the Worldwide Finance Company, TLcom Capital, Creadev, Juven, and DOB Fairness.

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