In the four years Don Wanyama has been at the helm of the Vision Group, the multi-media company has made losses in three of them.
Wanyama, President Museveni’s former press secretary, took over the reins from Robert Kabushenga in April 2021.
After one year, Vision Group reported that turnover of Shs111.4 billion and a profit of Shs 1 billion. However, the bulk of this profit was from a Shs 24.9 billion deal that the group got to print educational materials during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Since then, it has been loss after loss for Wanyama’s Vision Group. In the year that ended June 30, 2023, the second year of his leadership, Vision Group registered a loss in Publishing sales, Advertising revenue, Circulation, and Commercial.
Management attributed the loss to a decline in printing and advertising sales. They also
Last year (June 2024), the losses doubled. Vision Group reported a loss of Shs 11.1 billion, the highest in the company’s nearly 40-year history. Management attributed this to a decline in revenues across all business segments, save for commercial printing, which performed better.
Today, Don Wanyama has issued a notice warning shareholders and the public that the group is expected to make a loss for the year ended June 2025.
He said: “The main contributor to this performance is the challenging business environment due to declining traditional media newspaper sales and advertising revenue spend across the different platforms, coupled with the increase in prices of raw materials/inputs and other operational costs.”
We reported earlier this year that the group was planning to lay off staff as a measure of cutting costs.
New Vision to lay off staff as it warns public of a “loss” this year
What can Wanyama do to turn back the tide? We don’t know.
