Heineken, a Dutch brewer under pressure, announced on Wednesday that it would eliminate up to 6,000 positions due to “challenging market conditions” and lower beer sales than the previous year.
Over the next two years, the corporation plans to “reduce 5,000 to 6,000 roles, accelerating productivity at scale to unlock significant savings.”
Chief executive Dolf van den Brink issued a statement saying, “We remain prudent in our near-term expectations for beer market conditions.”
The announcement of the job layoffs seemed to be well received by traders, as shares on the Amsterdam stock exchange opened up about 3%.
After nearly six years in charge, Van den Brink shocked the business last month by announcing his resignation.
After admitting that he had steered the business “through turbulent economic and political times,” he told reporters he was departing with “mixed emotions.”
“Leaving Heineken in the best possible position is my top priority for the upcoming months,” he stated.
Heineken has about 87,000 employees worldwide.
The brewer had previously declared in October that it was restructuring its Amsterdam headquarters to utilize new technologies, which included the elimination or redistribution of 400 positions.
Slip of shipments
Chief financial officer Harold van den Broek said that the majority of the job layoffs would occur in Europe, although executives did not say where.
He told reporters, “Europe is a big part of our business.” “And it is very difficult to drive a good operating leverage there, as you can see from the financial results as well.”
Although not just, he stated, “we are concentrating many of the initiatives to strengthen our European business.”
According to the company’s annual reports, beer volumes worldwide at the second-largest brewer in the world, after AB InBev, decreased by 2.4% in 2025.
Europe and the Americas had particularly steep declines, falling 4.1 and 3.5 percent, respectively.
Global beer sales down 2.8% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Heineken’s total yearly sales were 34.4 billion euros ($41 billion), down from the 36.0 billion it banked in 2024.
When currency fluctuations are taken out of the equation, the company’s net profits of 2.7 billion euros represent a 4.9 percent improvement over the previous year.
Following a 4.4 percent increase to 4.4 billion euros last year, Heineken projected a two to six percent improvement in full-year organic operating profit for 2026.
