Tinashe Farawo
The financially troubled Rufaro Marketing (Private) Limited is offering some of its beer outlets to its former employees, who are using the outlets for free, as part of its retrenchment package.

The company’s chief executive, Mr Daniel Mutiwadirwa, confirmed the development, saying the move is part of empowering their employees.
“We have decided to empower our employees and some of them have already started operating the outlets,” he said.
Mr Mutiwadirwa said they had adopted a two-way system whereby employees are given an option of either getting their retrenchment package in cash or running the beer outlets.

“We are assisting those who want to take over the running of the outlets and soon we will be conducting training programmes for the new owners,” he said. Mr Mutiwadirwa said the number of years that one will get to use the facilities for free is arrived at by dividing the cash payout one is entitled to with the average monthly rentals the company charges for its beer outlets.

“Some of the former workers are going to operate at those outlets for four years without paying rent. It all depends on the number of years the employee has served in the company,” he said, adding that the new owners have an option to continue with operations after the rent-free era.
One of the retrenchees, Mr Tonderai Bangezhano, who is running a beer-selling outlet in Glen View,  said he intends to the use the experience he acquired while working for Rufaro Marketing to make the project a success.

“I have been in this industry for 20 years and the only difference now is that I am no longer working for the company but myself. I will use all my knowledge to make the business a big success . . . This is empowerment at its best,” he said.

Rufaro Marketing is on a resuscitation drive that earlier this year saw the company agreeing to lease 86 beer outlets to companies such as TN Holdings, Delta and PSMI. The company expects the initiative to generate at least $4 million annually.