Nestle is cutting 16,000 jobs globally as part of efforts to revive its financial performance.
The Swiss food giant, which makes Nescafe, KitKats, pet foods and many other well-known consumer brands, said Thursday that the job cuts will take place over the next two years. The company also said that it is raising targeted cost cuts to 3 billion Swiss francs ($5.32 billion Cdn) by the end of next year, up from a planned 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($4.43 billion Cdn).
Nestle Canada did not directly answer questions about what the cuts meant for its Canadian operations.
“The announced workforce reduction applies to markets and functions globally over the next two years,” said Catherine O’Brien, senior vice-president at Nestle Canada, in an email.
“It will affect each market in a different way, and each market will prepare its own plan. At this stage, we are not in a position to give specific numbers.”
Nestle said Thursday that it will eliminate 12,000 white-collar positions in multiple locations. The cuts are expected to achieve annual savings of 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.77 billion Cdn) by the end of next year. The company will cut 4,000 jobs as part of ongoing productivity initiatives in its manufacturing and supply chain.
“The world is changing, and Nestle needs to change faster,” CEO Philipp Navratil said in a statement.
It has been a turbulent year for the company, 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 year. He was replaced by Navratil, who is a longtime Nestle executive.
Shortly after Freixe was ousted, chairman Paul Bulcke stepped down early.
Nestle is also fighting a host of external headwinds like other food makers, including rising commodity costs and U.S. tariffs. The company announced price hikes over the summer to offset higher coffee and cocoa costs.
U.S. 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 10 per cent tariff imposed earlier.
Coffee habits in 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 price of cocoa soared to record highs last year after inclement weather in areas where it is grown constrained supply and hit companies like Nestle hard. While cocoa costs began to fall in 2025 as supply increased, cocoa is vastly more expensive than it was just two years ago.
Shares of Nestle rose nearly eight per cent on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company’s stock, which trades over the counter in the U.S., jumped by about the same level at the opening bell Thursday.
