Why we shut down —Swipha

The management of Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited (Swipha) has explained the reason behind the decision to temporarily close down the company.

The Managing Director of the company, Gaby El Khoury, in a statement at the weekend, said the current crisis in which the company found itself was precipitated by some members of staff who were opposed to the changes introduced by the new management of the company.

Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited was acquired by Biogaran, a subsidiary of Servier, in March 2017.

According to the statement, following the acquisition, “the management decided to lift the company up to its Group compliance and social policies, corporate governance, and benefits for the employees.”

The statement added, “Management decided to restructure the organisation to ensure efficiency by removing superfluous staff and eventually align the firm with global best practices.

“However, some of these policies appear to be unacceptable to some members of staff who preferred to slow down, than to hinder operation and embarked on strike since mid-December 2017 while all efforts to make them have a rethink about a promising future proved abortive.”

The statement said as a way of safeguarding company properties and preventing any form of hostility, the management decided to officially shut down operations temporarily.

The statement added that “the new management of Swipha strongly believes in Nigeria and is committed to its economic development and is resilient in its quest to engage modern new ways of working, best in class practices and high-level compliance standards, notwithstanding the financial losses the company may incur during this time.”