East African Breweries Limited has embarked on a restructuring programme to increase business efficiency that could see a number of employees let go.

Insiders at the region’s largest brewer told theSunday Nation that the first to go could be the expatriates seconded to the firm by its biggest shareholder, Diageo.

An official statement from group corporate relations director Brenda Mbathi says the restructuring will affect all business units. It is expected that the re-organisation will abolish “group roles” as the firm seeks to individualise its operations in each country in the eastern African region.

“The transformation aims to establish individual markets as fully enabled business units and to deploy appropriate resources to maximise performance,” Ms Mbathi said.

She said timelines for the process will vary across business units.

For the first time since listing at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, EABL two weeks ago issued a profit warning fto investors for the year ending June 30 citing high costs of doing business.

Sounding an alarm on its declining profitability, EABL said it had incurred high costs in servicing the Sh19.5 billion it borrowed from Diageo in November 2011 to acquire SAB Miller’s 20 per cent stake in Kenya Breweries.

Faced with financial challenges, the business is seen to be undertaking the re-organisation to remain profitable in an increasingly competitive environment.