Local hair manufacturer, X-Pression has sacked some of its workers due to the harsh economic situation in the country and influx of fake X-Pression products produced by Chinese nationals.
The employees of X-Pression, a subsidiary of Solpia Nigeria Limited, were informed of the downsizing through a memo in which company said it was cutting down the size of its workers, and the affected employees were workers recruited by outsourcing company, Amalya Consults Limited.
It was gathered that Amalya Consults had reportedly employed 1126 workers for Solpia Nigeria since the recruitment partnership began. However, almost a thousand workers recruited by Amalya Consults would be affected and unemployed by October 31, 2019. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s unemployment figure stood at 9.7 million as at Q3 of 2018.
Solpia Nigeria stated in the letter that the termination of its contract with Amalya Consults and the workers would be effective by October 31, 2019. X-Pression urged the sacked workers to take the termination in good fate as security personnel of the company had been directed not to allow any staff recruited by Amalya Consults to gain entrance into X-Pression from November 1, 2019.
The sack of the workers by X-Pression is a response to the current economic woes in Nigeria. According to the company, the harsh economic realities in Nigeria prompted the decision to terminate the contract as it can no longer afford the workforce it has.
“Due to the activities of unscrupulous people faking and passing off our hair attachment products especially Ultra and Rich Braid, coupled with low sales and the present economic situation in the country, we deemed it absolutely imperative to downsize our workforce in order to remain in business. The said products have suffered monumental faking and passing off by Nigerians and Chinese Nationals despite our fight against their unholy activities,” X-Pression disclosed.
The port congestion has also affected production level which in turn affected X-Pression’s ability to meet demand. This has compelled its foreign trading partners to stop placing orders.
“Our export business has also drastically plunged due to ports congestion. Raw materials are stuck in the Ports, this hampers optimum production and our foreign trading partners were losing customers due to the delays in meeting up with their demands.
“They stopped placing Orders for our products. We held a press conference on the 20th day of September 2019 to alert the Government and the whole world on the monumental faking and passing off of our products and its attendant consequences on our continued corporate existence and financial losses,” X-Pression added.
X-Pression has been operating since 1997, manufacturing hair products like weave-on, braid, and hairpieces. Popular X-Pression brands include Yaki Flip, Daniela, Lagos Braid, Funky, Active and Diva.