Nestlé is planning to cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years as the Swiss-headquartered multinational attempts to reduce costs and increase sales.
The owner of KitKat announced that the cuts would include 12,000 white-collar professionals and 4,000 in its manufacturing and supply chain, close to 6% of Nestlé's global workforce.
"The world is changing and Nestlé needs to change faster," said Philipp Navratil, the new chief executive.
He added, "This will include making hard but necessary decisions to reduce headcount over the next two years. We will do this with respect and transparency."
Navratil, who replaced Laurent Freixe last month after he was fired for failing to disclose a romantic relationship with a subordinate, announced an acceleration of his predecessor's cost-saving plan to free up cash.
Freixe's firing, which was followed two weeks later by the resignation of the chair, Paul Bulcke, destabilised a company that was already under pressure to bolster growth and reduce debt.
"We will be bolder in investing at scale and driving innovation to deliver accelerated growth and value creation," Navratil said.
The cuts were announced as the company reported a 1.9% year-on-year fall in sales to 65.9 billion francs in the first nine months of 2025.
Notably, Nestlé did not share details about the scale of job losses in individual countries; however, revealed that the company wanted to increase efficiencies across the group, including automating more of its work processes.
