Heineken to Cut Thousands of Jobs in Tough Beer Market

By Joshua Kirby

Heineken said it would remove thousands of jobs over the next two years after sales volumes continued to slide at the end of 2025.

As part of a previously announced plan to save hundreds of millions of euros a year, the Dutch brewer said Wednesday that it will remove between 5,000 and 6,000 roles over the next two years, a move aimed at "accelerating productivity at scale to unlock significant savings."

The plan to cut jobs comes after Heineken reported a 1.7% drop in beer volumes through the last three months of 2025 against a pallid consumer backdrop. Volumes fell 1.2% on year for the 2025 as a whole.

Still, the company made adjusted operating profit of 4.385 billion euros for the year, up 4.4% from a year earlier and in line with analysts' expectations, per a consensus of estimates compiled by the company.

Operating profit should grow between 2% and 6% this year, Heineken said.

"Our first priority is to accelerate growth, funded by stepped up productivity and operating model changes that will involve a significant cost intervention over the next two years," said Chief Executive Dolf van den Brink, who is set to step down from his post at the end of May.

"We remain prudent in our near-term expectations for beer market conditions," van den Brink said.

Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2026 01:47 ET (06:47 GMT)