The company did not specify in which countries the workforce reductions will occur.
The Nestlé group has been present in Portugal since 1923, with two production units—one in Porto focused on coffee roasting and the Avanca factory, where approximately 500 people are employed—and a distribution center also located in this parish of Estarreja.
“The world is evolving and Nestlé must adapt more quickly,” noted the Austrian-Swiss president of the multinational, Philip Navratil, who took office at the beginning of September. This necessitates making “difficult but necessary decisions to reduce staff.”
The workforce reduction program involves cutting 12,000 positions in various areas and functions, “aiming to save an annual expense of 1 billion Swiss francs (about 1.078 billion euros) by the end of 2027,” which is double the initially planned amount, according to the statement from the Swiss group.
These 12,000 positions are in addition to the 4,000 reductions already underway as a measure to increase productivity in production, storage, and distribution chains.
“We are raising our savings target to 3 billion Swiss francs (about 3.2 billion euros) starting today,” added Navratil, with the previous goal being 2.7 billion euros.
The conglomerate has more than 2,000 brands, including Nescafé, Maggi, and KitKat, among others, and experienced a turbulent September with the departure of the then-general director, Frenchman Laurent Freixe, and the former president, Belgian Paul Bulcke.
In the first nine months of 2025, Nestlé’s sales growth was 3.3%, driven by price increases of 2.8%.
Navratil, who led Nespresso until September, will attempt to stabilize the economic group, whose growth slowed due to the significant inflation in 2022 and a scandal in its bottled water segment.
