Heineken to cut 6000 jobs on slowing beer demand

… Nigerian market shows resilience

World’s second most valuable brewer, Heineken, has announced plans to cut as much as 6000 jobs from its workforce as global beer demand continues to weaken.

The cut represents 7 percent of its 87,000 global workforce as the Dutch brewer said it expects lower profitability in 2026 than a year earlier after its CEO Dolf van den Brink surprisingly resigned in January.

Heineken said its productivity drive will unlock savings and reduce its global head count by 5,000 to 6,000 positions over the next two years.

“We really do this to strengthen our operations and to be able to invest in growth,” Harold van den Broek, its finance chief said on a media call announcing the company’s annual results.

Some of the cuts, he said, would be focused on Europe or non-priority markets offering fewer growth prospects, and some would also result from previously announced initiatives targeting Heineken’s supply network, head office and regional business units.

Along with weak demand, alcohol makers also face long-term threats like rising health warnings, competition from alternatives, and disruptions like weight-loss drugs.

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The brewer expects slower profit growth this year as net income is projected at between 2 percent and 6 percent, against the 4 percent to 8 percent growth it guided for in 2025.

Nigerian beer market shows resilience

Heineken dominates the Nigerian beer market as it controls 37 percent stake in the country’s biggest brewer, Nigerian Breweries, making it the majority stakeholder.

Nigerian Breweries returned to profitability in the nine months of 2025, posting N85.5 billion profit compared to N149.5 billion losses incurred by the beer maker in the prior period two years ago.

The improved earning position for the period under review was partly supported by resilient pricing and gradual volume recovery that saw its turnover surge to a record of N1 trillion.

The market conditions are now improving in Africa’s most populous nation with inflation easing, purchasing power improving and the naira getting firmer.

Nigerian Breweries is expected to report a strong profit growth in its full year 2025 results, ending its foreign exchange induced losses.

Wasiu Alli

Wasiu Alli is a business, economics cum data journalist with strong expertise covering macro trends, capital markets, government policies, corporate earnings and comparative economics analysis. Alli turns raw data into trends that not only tells compelling stories but nudges investors to make valued and informed decisions. He’s an alumnus of Lagos State University and trained at Lagos Business School. He formerly heads the Companies and Markets desk at BusinessDay where he writes and supervises the production of well researched articles on earnings updates, corporate sectoral comparisons, market intelligence as well as interviews with C-suite executives.