Corona crisis forces Heineken to cut jobs | Financial

Expenditure for employees at the brewer’s Dutch headquarters and regional offices must be reduced by about 20%, resulting in job losses. Forced redundancies are not excluded, a spokesperson for the company says. He could not give precise numbers yet.

Heineken promised its staff at the start of the corona crisis not to carry out mass layoffs in 2020. The beer group will therefore start the reorganization in the first quarter of 2021, in close collaboration with trade unions and works councils.

In the first nine months of this year, Heineken sold significantly less beer than a year earlier, as bars and restaurants worldwide were closed due to the corona pandemic. Volume during that period declined 8.3 percent year-on-year to 165.4 million hectoliters. In the summer months, results improved thanks to a relaxation of lockdowns, which resulted in only 2.1 percent less drinks being sold in the third quarter than a year earlier.

Nevertheless, CEO Dolf van den Brink remains pessimistic. A second wave of the virus outbreak and any new coronavirus upsets will further hurt beer sales. In addition, the expected recession as a result of the pandemic is added, he says in an explanation.

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