The decision was confirmed on Friday by Nocal's director general, Julien Garin, stating that in addition to the current delicate economic context, the Castel Group's brewery was faced with increased costs.
"Due to the increase in the prices of raw materials and the introduction, in October, first, of VAT and then of the IEC, whose last measure led to an increase of 12 percent in the costs of beer. All these factors resulted in an even sharper drop in beer sales," Julien Garin said in statements to public radio.
According to him, after four months of maintaining the plant, despite the context of uncertainty, there are no signs of improvement in the situation, which would allow all workers to be maintained.
As an alternative, the brewery will be transformed into a distribution centre for the products of the Castel group, which also owns the brands Coca-Cola Company, TOP (soft drink present in more than 20 countries in Africa), the beers Cuca and Eka, the cider under the Booster brand, and Nocal will be produced in other plants.
Julien Garin stressed that the profits produced by the distribution company will not be at the same level as a beer brewing company.
"To be a little more technical, the margins of the distribution companies are much lower than those of the production companies. When a production company has margins of 20 to 30 percent, a distribution company has margins between three, five, six, seven percent of turnover," he said.
José Monteiro, human resources director, said that the compensation provided for by law was guaranteed, and the management decided to award an increase, with five salaries for workers with up to five years of effectiveness, six salaries for between six and ten years of service, and seven salaries for those with more than ten years of business.
"And then there are the other supplements, such as holiday subsidies, including notice salaries", he said.
The first union secretary of the brewery, Lucas João, said that the plant has been paralyzed for another six months, and production has been transferred to the Cuca plant, where some workers are.
Nocal, produced in Angola since 1960, is the second beer to be produced in the country after Cuca.
