A-B InBev cuts 10 percent of Belgian workforce
Anheuser-Busch InBev said Thursday that it plans to fire 10 percent of its work force in Belgium, home to its international headquarters.
The world’s biggest beermaker blamed the cuts on Belgians drinking less beer. A total of 263 jobs out of about 2,700 will be lost. Cuts include 73 executives.
The company also planned to close a brewery in Luxembourg, moving production of beers like Diekirch and Mousel to other facilities. Job losses also come from changing distribution patterns.
One industry analyst said the layoffs reflect A-B InBev’s relentless focus on cutting costs, a pressure that would exist even without the $17 billion debt remaining from the $54.8 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by InBev in 2008.
"These guys are just obsessive about constantly cutting costs. It’s just an obsession," Trevor Stirling, senior research analyst at Sanford Bernstein in London, told the Post-Dispatch on Thursday no teletrack payday loans.
The job cuts in Belgium show that A-B InBev does not expect to find all of its cost-savings by slashing jobs in St. Louis, home to the company’s North American headquarters.
But the company has wielded a heavy ax in St. Louis, slashing 1,000 employees from a work force that once numbered 6,000.
In Belgium, the job cuts were met with displeasure by a union official.
"InBev promised us that they will try to avoid forced layoffs through early retirement," Carlo Rombauts with the ABVV union told Bloomberg News, "but we’re contemplating actions right now."
Last March, A-B InBev said it hoped to ferret out $2.25 billion in cost-savings over the next three years.