Huggies Contemplates Nigeria Exit Amidst Rising Costs, Threatening Price Hikes and Job Losses

Kimberly-Clark, the maker of several sanitary pads and the well-known diaper brand ‘Huggies’, is about to announce the closure of its production facility in Ikorodu, Nigeria, following several years of investing $100 million in the nation. This announcement is expected to result in another round of massive job losses and price hikes.

Nairametrics was informed by an anonymous insider that Kimberly-Clark has been experiencing difficulties and working below capacity since late 2023 as a result of Nigeria’s difficult economic circumstances.

This is the company’s second closure in Nigeria; it had previously stopped operations in 2019 after conducting a business assessment, but it had started up again in 2022 with the opening of a $100 million facility in Lagos State’s Ikorodu.

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“The cost of running is quite expensive. Aside from maintenance, our fixed monthly expenditure exceeds N500 million, and we only spend roughly N100 million on gas usage to run the gas engine. The company’s two assets didn’t operate for approximately 90 days out of a 365-day period last year.

The company had to reduce from four shifts to two earlier this year. We used to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year, but due to the current state of the economy, we no longer operate on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. An prohibition on external hiring already exists. Since the business is losing money, it is searching for methods to cut costs, the person stated.

This event coincides with the announcement of over fifteen major corporations, including Procter & Gamble and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to withdraw from Nigeria between the end of 2018 and May of this year.

The ongoing exodus of international corporations from Nigeria has alarmed experts.

As a result, according to the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, 15 international corporations have left Nigeria, eliminating 2,000 jobs.