In order “to better align our operations with our commercial strategy and to further reduce complexity,” Anheuser-Busch has laid off nearly 40 people across the United States. The company notified employees Thursday of an unspecified number of layoffs to its brewing team in St. Louis according to local newspaper reports. Anheuser-Busch confirmed the report but declined to say how many people are affected. "We are implementing a limited number of targeted changes to our supply organization in our North American zone," Josh Gold, Senior Director Corporate Communications at Anheuser-Busch, said.
The redundancies come about one year after the company released more than 350 employees of its former High End Beer Division sales force. (inside.beer, 7.9.2017)
The world’s largest brewer currently faces strong headwinds. About 6 weeks ago, AB InBev had to announce weaker than expected third-quarter profits and a dividend cut which caused the share price to collapse. According to projections of the company, the achieved synergies following the SABMiller acquisition in 2016 and the executed cost cuts were not sufficient to secure the proposed repayment of the $108bn in debt stemming from the acquisition. (inside.beer, 25.10.2018)
