Heineken to cut head office staff

Netherlands | Never let a crisis go to waste. Dutch brewing giant Heineken plans to cut personnel costs at its Amsterdam headquarters and regional country offices. An estimated one in five people are to go. Hundreds of jobs will be lost. The reorganisation is to take place in the first quarter of next year.

Some 1,700 people currently work at Heineken’s headquarters and in regional offices across the globe. The company does not yet know how many redundancies are likely to be needed.

Previously, Heineken had sad there would not be any restructuring in 2020 because of the coronavirus crisis.

Heineken has had a difficult year, as lockdowns closed cafes and bars. The on-premise has suffered most – a channel with high margins.  

Sales in the first nine months of the year are down 8.3 percent to 165 million hl, and net profit has tumbled to EUR 396 million (USD 470 million) from EUR 1.7 billion in the same period last year, the company said. Heineken again refrained from issuing a trading update for the final quarter of the year, given the current volatility.