Heineken to Cut up to 6,000 Jobs, Sees Slower 2026 Profit Growth Amid Weak Demand

The Dutch brewer unveiled cost cuts and an investment push under a new EverGreen 2030 strategy as European companies step up restructuring plans.

Heineken beer bottles at a bar in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 20, 2017. Daniel Becerril/Reuters

Heineken said on Feb. 11 it would cut between 5,000 and 6,000 roles over the next two years and forecast slower profit growth for 2026.

The Dutch brewer announced the measures alongside its 2025 full-year results and said it expects full-year 2026 operating profit to grow between 2 and 6 percent, below the pace achieved in 2025.

Heineken CEO Dolf van den Brink said the company would “accelerate productivity at scale to unlock significant savings,” a move that would involve reducing 5,000 to 6,000 roles as part of changes to its operating model.

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

The job cuts come as several major European companies announce restructuring plans in response to softer demand and economic uncertainty.

Market Conditions

Heineken said that the company’s total volume declined 1.2 percent in 2025. Despite the overall drop, its Heineken brand volume grew 2.7 percent, while its global brands volume increased 1.9 percent.

The company said more than 60 percent of its markets, including more than 80 percent of its priority growth markets, gained or held market share during the year.

“In 2025, we delivered a resilient and well-balanced performance,” van den Brink said. “We gained share, drove cost and cash productivity, and increased investment behind our brands.”

Heineken said it would pivot from its EverGreen 2025 plan to a new EverGreen 2030 strategy focused on sharper capital allocation and stronger value creation.

“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,” van den Brink said.

Heineken said it assumes an unchanged consumer environment in most of its markets in 2026 and remains cautious about macroeconomic conditions.

It expects variable costs to rise by a low single-digit percentage per hectoliter (26.4 gallons), largely due to currency impacts on local inflation bases, notably in Africa.

The company forecasts an effective tax rate of 27 to 28 percent in 2026 and capital expenditure below 8 percent of net revenue. It also said the completed acquisition of FIFCO’s beverage and retail businesses in Central America would be approximately 2 to 3 percent accretive to earnings per share.

European Peers Cut Jobs

Heineken’s announcement follows a series of recent job-cut plans by European companies.

Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML said on Jan. 28 it intended to reduce its workforce by about 1,700 positions as part of a restructuring focused on its technology and IT organizations, despite logging record orders in the fourth quarter of 2025.

A cost-cutting drive at Austria’s AMS OSRAM will affect roughly 2,000 employees, according to fourth-quarter 2025 results released on Feb. 10.

About 1,600 positions in Sweden are set to be cut at Ericsson as the telecoms equipment maker grapples with a prolonged slowdown in industry spending, the company disclosed on Jan. 15.

Exit programs covering around 5,500 employees across seven Spanish subsidiaries form part of Telefónica’s strategic overhaul, according to a Dec. 22, 2025, press release detailing labor agreements with unions.

And at Nestlé, 16,000 jobs—about 5.8 percent of its global workforce—are slated to go as the food group pushes ahead with an accelerated artificial intelligence strategy, it said on Oct. 16, 2025.