Nestlé to axe 16,000 jobs despite recent business growth

NESTLÉ has announced it will cut 16,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as part of the newly appointed CEO’s “accelerated growth” efforts.

The announcement came this week as part of the global food and drinks giant’s nine-month sales performance summary which showed Nestlé recorded more than 3% organic growth worldwide.

The Switzerland-based company has said the job cuts will spread across countries and business divisions, specifying only that it will be dispensing with 12,000 “white-collar professionals” and 4,000 manufacturing and supply chain staff. In total, Nestlé expects the cuts to save the company 1bn Swiss francs (US$1.26bn) by 2028 – double the savings targeted in its previous growth strategy.

In the first nine months of 2025, Nestlé recorded organic growth of 3.3% compared to the previous year, despite sales revenue dropping from by 1.9%, while profit margin is expected to come in at 16% for the year. In a statement, CEO Philipp Navratil did not address the job cuts directly, but said the company would be “rigorous in our approach to resource allocation”. He added: “We will be bolder in investing at scale and driving innovation to deliver accelerated growth and value creation”.

Navratil was appointed last month after his predecessor Laurent Freixe was sacked for having an “undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate”. Navratil has said driving growth is his “number one priority”. Nestlé reported that coffee and confectionery were the main drivers of recent growth, largely fuelled by price hikes – reaching double digits in some countries.