Heineken to Cut 8,000 Jobs amid COVID Challenges

Peter Sblendorio

Thousands of jobs are being cut by the beer company Heineken amid financial challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Heineken’s beer sales went down more than 8% during 2020. The company will now slash 8,000 jobs after suffering a net loss of $248 million last year, the company said Wednesday.

Heineken, which is based in Amsterdam, is among the biggest beer brewers on the planet.

The coronavirus crisis presented issues such as closures of the company’s production centers and bars being shuttered in parts of many countries.

“The impact of the pandemic on our business was amplified by our on-trade and geographical exposure,” the company’s CEO, Dolf van den Brink, said in a statement Wednesday. “We took diligent cost mitigation actions balanced with continued investment behind our growth platforms.”

The cuts are part of a corporate restructuring that Heineken hopes will save the company $2.4 billion over the next two years, according to CNN. The moves will cost more than $500 million for Heineken, which turned a profit of $2.7 billion in 2019.

“While navigating the crisis, we are building our future,” Van den Brink said.

The newly announced cuts will lead to nearly 10% of all Heineken employees losing their jobs.