Nestlé has sold its 51% majority share in its Ethiopian bottled water business. As part of a restructuring of its water business, it will sell its share, owned since 2016, back to its joint venture partners in Great Abyssinia Spring Waters.

Nestlé has also laid off 17 head office employees in Ethiopia.

Parent company Great Abyssinia was founded more than 25 years ago by Abyssinia Tea & Coffee Enterprise. The group now has interests in coffee exports, real estate and soft drinks. Great Abyssinia Spring Waters was founded in  2007 and currently has 213 employees, according to local media. Nestlé Waters bought its stake in Great Abyssinia Spring Waters in May 2016.

The Great Abyssinia Spring Waters bottled water plant at Sululta, north of Addis Ababa, has been somewhat controversial. The town, in the restive Oromia region, has seen several foreign owned factories set up there.

The bottled water plant extracts 50,000 litres of water an hour  –  apparently about half of what the local government extracts. The problem is that many residents of Sululta struggle to access clean water. This divide between the haves and have nots is bad PR, and arguably also a business security risk.

Nestlé does have a long term partnership with Ethiopia’s Water and Land Resource Center (WLRC) to develop more access to water and sustainable water resource management. This included a Br3.5m ($110,000) grant funded by Nestlé Ethiopia to hire 20 researchers and a surveyor. Nestlé also built a water station in Sululta to provide 20,000 litres of water per day to the local community.