Heineken lays off 6,000 jobs globally amid low beer consumption. The company has four factories in Romania
The Heineken factory in Miercurea-Ciuc. Photo source: retail-fmcg.ro
Heineken will cut up to 6,000 jobs globally over the next two years, nearly 7% of its workforce, as demand for beer falls, according to The Guardian. The Dutch company, which produces the Heineken, Amstel and Tiger brands, said the redundancies would affect both factory staff and administrative staff, out of a total of around 87,000 employees worldwide, amid “difficult market conditions”.
The announcement comes as the world's second-largest brewer by market capitalization revised down its profit growth estimates for 2026.
“We are doing this to strengthen our operations and to be able to invest in growth,” said the company's chief financial officer, Harold van den Broek, after the publication of the annual results.
Some of the jobs will be cut in Europe, but also in other markets, he said, adding that some cuts will come from previously announced measures targeting Heineken's supply network, headquarters and regional divisions.
In Romania, Heineken has over 1,100 employees who work in different areas of the country, in factories, at the headquarters or in the sales team, according to the company's website.
The company has breweries in Miercurea Ciuc, Constanța, Craiova and Târgu Mureș and its headquarters in Bucharest.
The announcement of the layoffs comes just a month after CEO Dolf van den Brink's surprise resignation in January after six years at the helm.
Van den Brink, who will step down in May, has been under pressure to accelerate growth and improve Heineken's productivity with fewer resources as investors have accused the company of losing efficiency.
Heineken said the job cuts are aimed at “accelerating large-scale productivity to achieve significant savings”.
The company expects slower profit growth of between 2% and 6% this year, compared to the 4%-8% advance it had forecast for 2025.
The announcement comes as Heineken reported a 1.2% drop in total beer volumes sold last year compared to 2024, at a time when both the company and its rivals are facing declining sales, particularly in Europe and North America.
People's budgets have been affected by economic pressures, and some consumers are reducing their alcohol consumption for health reasons.
Others have limited consumption after changing their diet and lifestyle, including using weight loss drugs such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.
