Nestlé is cutting 16,000 jobs globally because the Swiss food giant cuts costs as a part of its efforts to revive its financial performance.
Nestlé, which makes Nescafé, KitKats, pet foods and lots of other well-known consumer brands, said Thursday that the job cuts will happen over the following two years. The Swiss company also said that it’s raising targeted cost cuts to three billion Swiss francs (US$3.76 billion) by the top of next yr, up from a planned 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($3.13 billion).
It has been a turbulent yr for the corporate, based Vevey, Switzerland. Last month, Nestle dismissed CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a subordinate.
Freixe had only been on the job for a yr. He was replaced by Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive.
Shortly after Freixe was ousted, Chairman Paul Bulcke stepped down early.
Nestlé can be fighting a number of external headwinds like other food makers, including rising commodity costs and U.S. imposed tariffs. The corporate announced price hikes over the summer to offset higher coffee and cocoa costs.
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President Donald Trump has implemented a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian goods like coffee and orange juice. The Trump administration imposed a 40 per cent tariff on Brazilian products in July, which was on top of a ten per cent tariff imposed earlier.
Coffee habits within the U.S. are almost exclusively fueled by imports. Official U.S. government data shows Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer, supplies about 30 per cent of the American market, followed by Colombia at roughly 20 per cent and Vietnam at about 10 per cent. Tariff negotiations are ongoing.
The worth of cocoa soared to record highs last yr after inclement weather in areas where it’s grown constrained supply and hit corporations like Nestlé hard. While cocoa costs began to fall in 2025 as supply increased, cocoa is vastly dearer than it was just two years ago.
Nestlé said Thursday that it’s going to eliminate 12,000 white-collar positions in multiple locations. The job cuts are expected to realize annual savings of 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.25 billion) by the top of next yr.
The corporate will cut 4,000 jobs as a part of ongoing productivity initiatives in its manufacturing and provide chain.
“The world is changing, and Nestlé needs to vary faster,” Navratil said in an announcement.
Shares of Nestlé rose nearly eight per cent on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
A Global News request sent to Nestlé asking what number of Canadian jobs are included within the cuts has yet to receive a response.
– With a file from Global’s Ari Rabinovitch
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