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Dutch brewing giant Heineken announced on Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs as it grapples with what it described as “challenging market conditions,” following a decline in beer volumes compared to the previous year.
The company said it would be “accelerating productivity at scale to unlock significant savings, reducing 5,000 to 6,000 roles over the next two years”.
Chief executive Dolf van den Brink said in a statement, “We remain prudent in our near-term expectations for beer market conditions.”
Van den Brink surprised many last month when he revealed he would step down after nearly six years leading the company. Speaking to reporters, he said he was departing with “mixed emotions,” noting that he had steered the brewer “through turbulent economic and political times”.
“My priority for the coming months is to leave Heineken in the strongest possible position,” he said.
Heineken’s global workforce currently stands at about 87,000 employees.
In October, the brewer had already disclosed plans to cut or redeploy 400 staff as part of a restructuring of its Amsterdam headquarters aimed at leveraging new technologies.
While senior executives did not give precise details on where most of the reductions would occur, chief financial officer Harold van den Broek indicated that Europe would likely be heavily affected.
“Europe is a big part of our business,” he told reporters. “And you see from the financial results also that it is very tough to drive a good operating leverage there.”
“So we are focusing many of the initiatives to strengthen our European business, but not exclusively so,” he said.
According to the company’s annual report, global beer volumes at the world’s second-largest brewer after AB InBev declined by 2.4 percent in 2025.
The drop was more pronounced in Europe and the Americas, where volumes fell by 4.1 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.
In the final quarter of the year, overall global beer volumes slipped by 2.8 percent.
Heineken reported total annual sales of 34.4 billion euros ($41 billion), down from 36.0 billion euros recorded in 2024.
Net profit stood at 2.7 billion euros, representing a 4.9 percent increase compared to the previous year when currency effects were excluded.
For 2026, the company projected full-year organic operating profit growth of between two and six percent, following a 4.4 percent rise to 4.4 billion euros last year.
